China advances silver economy development to unlock new domestic consumption potential amid moderate ageing
China has entered a stage of moderate population ageing, with demographic ageing set to remain one of the country’s fundamental national conditions for a long period. Guided by the concepts of active and healthy ageing, China has incorporated elderly-friendly development into overall socioeconomic progress. According to state policy documents, the 15th Five-Year Plan Outline prioritises the robust development of the silver economy, while guidelines issued by the General Office of the State Council emphasise targeted cultivation of high-potential industries to meet the diverse and multi-layered demands of elderly groups.
Official demographic data shows that China’s population aged 60 and above reached approximately 323 million by the end of 2025, accounting for 23 per cent of the total national population. Driven by ongoing demographic shifts, China’s population development features declining birth rates, sustained ageing and regional population differentiation. The silver economy covers a full industrial spectrum including products, services and pre-ageing preparation services for middle-aged and elderly groups, boasting extensive coverage, complete industrial chains, diverse business formats and enormous market potential.
The development of the silver economy serves as a core approach to transform demographic ageing challenges into new socioeconomic driving forces. It converts the massive middle-aged and elderly population into vital drivers of domestic demand and human resource development, facilitating coordinated progress between population structure optimisation and high-quality economic growth. Evolving from traditional elderly care services, the modern silver economy has developed into a compound industrial system. It covers both elderly-oriented industries and pre-ageing industries that support middle-aged groups in wealth accumulation, health management and life planning, connecting production, circulation and consumption links to balance economic growth and people’s livelihood improvement.
Global ageing trends have driven continuous upgrading of international elderly development concepts. The World Health Organization has promoted healthy and active ageing frameworks centred on health participation and social security. China has integrated these advanced concepts into national policy deployment, fostering an age-friendly social atmosphere, optimising public service and employment environments for elderly groups, and building a full-life-cycle health service system to stimulate the value of elderly human resources.
China boasts distinctive institutional, market and technological advantages for silver economy growth. National strategic deployment for active ageing has promoted coordinated policy implementation across civil affairs, health and human resources authorities, forming systematic industrial development layouts. Supported by the world’s largest elderly population scale, domestic silver tourism revenue exceeded 1 trillion yuan in 2025, with more than 100 million healthy younger elderly people participating in frequent leisure travel activities. Advanced artificial intelligence and digital technologies further empower industrial upgrading, with intelligent monitoring equipment and remote medical platforms continuously improving the quality of elderly public services.
Clear phased development goals have been established for China’s elderly care and silver economy system. Relevant policy documents outline comprehensive improvements in elderly care service networks and service capacity by 2029, with continuously optimised basic elderly care supply. By 2035, a mature and tailored elderly care system suitable for China’s national conditions will take shape, delivering inclusive and accessible elderly care services for all senior citizens. Driven by policy guidance and market vitality, the silver economy has become a key growth engine for expanding domestic demand, boosting consumption and stabilising employment.
Industrial upgrading and consumption structural changes are driving iterative innovation in the silver economy. Modern elderly consumer groups demonstrate distinct features of health awareness, sufficient leisure time, stable purchasing power and personalised pursuit. Consumption focus has shifted from basic survival-oriented spending on food, clothing and medical treatment to quality-oriented consumption covering cultural tourism, health preservation and home ageing-friendly renovation. Nearly 60 per cent of elderly consumers prioritise quality life experience over basic material security. Lifestyle choices have also diversified, with seasonal residential tourism, elderly study tours and social leisure activities gaining popularity. More than 60 per cent of healthy younger elderly people take part in travel activities over three times annually.
Elderly health consumption concepts have also undergone profound changes, with proactive health management replacing passive medical treatment. Regular physical examinations, chronic disease conditioning, nutritional maintenance and fitness rehabilitation have become daily consumption choices, fuelling the rapid expansion of professional medical examination and health management institutions. Obvious hierarchical characteristics have emerged in elderly consumption demands. Younger elderly groups focus on personalised experience and long-term health and financial planning; middle-aged elderly groups prioritise daily health care and cost-effective nursing services; advanced-age and disabled elderly groups have concentrated demands for medical treatment, rehabilitation and home care services. High-net-worth elderly groups pursue high-end customised elderly care and premium lifestyle services.
Targeted multi-dimensional measures will further unlock the incremental potential of the silver economy. China will fully tap elderly human resources by exploring flexible employment models for retired professionals and skilled workers, promoting knowledge inheritance and cross-generational collaborative development. The multi-level social security system will be optimised through diversified elderly financial products and improved long-term nursing insurance mechanisms, stabilising long-term income security for elderly groups and strengthening social protection for low-income elderly populations.
Age-inclusive urban public environments will be comprehensively upgraded, with integrated community spaces covering elderly day care, childcare and youth leisure functions. Cross-generational mutual assistance mechanisms will be improved to bridge the digital divide for elderly groups and realise mutual support between different age groups. Differentiated industrial support policies will be implemented for elderly groups at different age stages, with targeted support for cultural tourism, medical-nursing integration, smart elderly care and inclusive public service industries.
As a core component of the silver economy, the pre-ageing economy is entering a critical stage of industrialised development. According to official statistics, China’s population aged 45 to 59 has reached 337 million, forming a huge potential consumer group for pre-ageing services. Guided by national policy frameworks, the pre-ageing economy focuses on full-life-cycle proactive planning, covering wealth reserve, health management and elderly life preparation services. It effectively disperses elderly care risks, alleviates intergenerational family support pressure and builds a low-cost and high-efficiency social risk prevention system.
The demand structure of the pre-ageing economy continues to upgrade, with consumer focus shifting from survival needs to high-quality experiential consumption. Personalised physical examination, oral health management, fitness rehabilitation, wellness residential tourism, elderly financial consulting and home ageing-friendly renovation have become fast-growing niche tracks. The supply side is evolving from scattered spontaneous market exploration to systematic industrial clustering. National-level industrial park layouts in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Chengdu-Chongqing region are driving industrial agglomeration, while e-commerce platforms, home appliance enterprises and financial institutions are accelerating layout in pre-ageing service sectors.
The industry still faces structural mismatches between supply and demand and incomplete institutional systems. Low coverage of enterprise annuities and personal pension schemes restricts residents’ long-term retirement financial planning. High residential asset ratios limit household asset liquidity and constrain consumption conversion. Market supply still focuses rigidly on elderly disability care, with insufficient forward-looking full-life-cycle health management and financial planning services for middle-aged pre-ageing groups. The industrial ecosystem requires further improvement, with leading enterprises and unified industry standards yet to be fully established.
Future industrial development will focus on systematic optimisation of planning, finance, supply and institutional guarantees. Cross-departmental coordination mechanisms will be improved to integrate industrial, fiscal and financial support policies. Financial supply-side structural reform will be deepened to enrich exclusive pension financial products and explore innovative elderly asset management models. Precision-oriented pre-ageing products and services will be developed to promote integrated development of medical care, health preservation and cultural tourism industries. Unified industry standards and complete supporting systems will be established to strengthen consumer rights protection and foster a positive social atmosphere for proactive elderly preparation and scientific elderly life planning.
Industry forecasts show that China’s silver economy scale will exceed 30 trillion yuan by 2035, accounting for around 10 per cent of the national GDP. Continuous policy optimisation, supply upgrading and consumption environment improvement will sustain the high-quality development of the silver economy, releasing long-term stable growth momentum for China’s domestic consumer market.
