Guizhou province is one of China's provinces with the greatest aging problems so it has plans to improve its care system to deal with increasing demands and to improve the happiness of the elderly through pension increases and greater investment in nursing homes, even while it faces the other challenge of how to improve its economic growth.
The provincial government reported on April 27 that its number of people above the age of 60 was 5.23 million by the end of 2014, or 14.9 percent of the province's total. Back in 1982, the World Assembly on Aging, in Vienna, Austria, defined an aging society as one where the number of people above 60 accounts for more than 10 percent of the total. By that definition, Guizhou, which is also one of China's poorest regions, is clearly an aging province, and one with an underdeveloped economy.
By the end of 2014, the province had put 3.5 billion yuan ($560 million) into its care-for-the-aged system and building at least 1,200 nursing homes. Guizhou also set up the country's first provincial-level service center for the elderly in 2012 and, in June 2014, a communications site to connect the service-for-the-aged industry and the government. Provincial authorities say that, by 2020, Guizhou will try to have a comprehensive, mature aging service system for households, communities and special care centers in both urban and rural areas.
