Investigations into the Provision of Care Services for the Social Elderly in Shanghai, Focusing on the Impact of Population Aging

Abstract

The aging population stands as a key developmental challenge for China in this new period, with the country officially entering an aged society in 2021. As the elderly population born in the 1960s enters old age, the need for superior and varied services for elderly care is on the rise . However, China is still in the process of creating a comprehensive social system for elderly care services, and the existing system still faces challenges such as incompleteness, insufficient investment in elderly care services, and low service provision levels. As the population ages and social elderly care services evolve, there's an immediate need to upgrade the social elderly care system and improve both the availability and quality of these services. Being the inaugural Chinese city to transition into an older society, Shanghai confronts a pronounced and severe trend in its aging demographic. Data from late 2023 shows that 23.4% of the population was aged 60 and older, and over 36% of the registered population was over 60, significantly exceeding the global benchmark for deep ageing, which stands at 14% of those aged 65 and above, presenting a pattern of deep ageing, high-ageing, and structural contradictions coexisting — not only is the scale of the elderly population aged 80 and above continuing to expand, but there is also a significant disparity between the ageing rates of the registered and permanent resident populations, accompanied by a surge in demand for professional care services for the elderly with disabilities and partial disabilities. Against this backdrop, this paper, based on an understanding of the supply of social elderly care services, takes Shanghai as its research object. Using cross- sectional data on population and elderly care service supply from various districts in Shanghai,it outlines the present state and traits of Shanghai's senior citizens. The aim is to analyse the shortcomings in Shanghai's senior care services in terms of bed supply, coordination among service providers, and regional distribution, and to provide insights for optimising the supply system and aligning it with ageing-related needs.