How will the post-90s spend their pension savings 30 years from now?
How to enable everyone to find meaning in life even after growing old is the ultimate question left to human civilization in the era of aging. In the inter - generational social transformation triggered by elderly care, everyone will become a reconstructor of life.
The "silver wave" is rewriting our lives.
Data shows that by the end of 2024, there were 310 million people aged 60 and above and 220 million people aged 65 and above in China, accounting for 22% and 15.6% of the total population respectively, indicating that China has entered the stage of moderate aging. By 2035, the number of elderly people in China will exceed 400 million.
On March 23rd, at the 2025 Annual Conference of the China Development Forum, Tang Chengpei, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, mentioned in his speech that the scale of the elderly population in China has exceeded the total population of most countries in the world. In the next 10 years, the net increase of the elderly population aged 60 and above will exceed 10 million every year.
It is obvious that China is experiencing an aging process that is large - scale, rapid, and long - lasting.
Retirement is not the end of life but the starting point of a second life. The increasingly concrete life propositions show us that "aging" is not just a numerical increase in statistical tables, but a necessary life question closely related to every family.
When we talk about elderly care, we don't want to create anxiety. Instead, when this issue inevitably happens to our parents or even ourselves, we can offer a possibility of life reconstruction. This also makes us think about how to transform "aging" from a real social pressure into an opportunity for people to rediscover and develop themselves, and become a continuous driving force for the silver economy.
(Photo/ "A Lifelong Dream")
The Distance between Us and "Cyber Elderly Care"
If you still remember the "Cyber Yangko" performance by robots wearing cotton - padded jackets and twirling handkerchiefs at the 2025 Spring Festival Gala, you must have also heard this joke about elderly care: During the Spring Festival, my relatives asked me who would take care of me when I got old, and I took out a 650,000 - yuan elderly - care robot.
Yes, the same robot as the one in the Spring Festival Gala, produced by Unitree Robotics, can be purchased online for only 650,000 yuan, and installment payment with Huabei is supported. In fact, robot - assisted elderly care is no longer a fantasy; it is even within reach. At the 2025 Two Sessions, Zhang Yunquan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, suggested including the development of elderly - care robots in a new strategic plan and focusing on promoting the development action plan for community and family elderly - care robots; Liu Qingfeng, a deputy to the National People's Congress and the chairman of iFlytek Co., Ltd., pointed out that the daily use of elderly - care robots may gradually become a reality in the next 3 - 5 years.
In fact, the application scenarios of robots in China are gradually expanding into the field of elderly care. In Shenzhen, there are several types of intelligent robots "working" in some nursing homes, such as bathing robots, excrement - and - urine care robots, and walking - assistance robots; in Chongqing, wearable exoskeleton robots help elderly people with limb function disabilities conduct intelligent and personalized rehabilitation training; in Jiangsu, the first domestic elderly - care robot, "Big - Head A Liang", takes care of the elderly's medication, meals, and rest at any time and can also connect a series of health management and home - safety devices; in Beijing, the elderly - companion robot "Xiaoli" integrates multiple functions such as schedule reminder, chatting, song playing, recipe query, and emergency call, providing all - around life companionship for the elderly...
(Photo/Screenshot from social media)
A more convenient and comfortable era of smart elderly care is not far from us. However, we still need to realize that technological innovation may not be the ultimate answer to the problem of elderly care.
In 2024, an article titled "When a Peking University Professor Becomes a 24 - Hour Caregiver" brought Hu Yong, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University, into the public view. During the three - year period of round - the - clock care for his mother with severe Alzheimer's disease, he faced endless household chores and unexpected situations every day.
Hu Yong's situation is like a mirror, reflecting the caregiving dilemmas that hundreds of millions of Chinese families are experiencing or will face. In the fate where everyone will become a caregiver or a care - recipient, robots, as "cyber elderly - care partners", are regarded as the best salvation. But this is not the whole story.
When being interviewed by the media, Hu Yong summarized his feelings of taking care of his mother as "constantly having to fight against despair" and needing to strive to find meaning in the meaningless. The demand of elderly - care industry practitioners for robots is also to hope that robots can help caregivers with the most difficult physical care tasks, liberating caregivers from heavy physical labor so that they can devote more energy to providing emotional companionship to the cared - for.
(Photo/ "All About My Mother")
Elderly - care robots still have a long way to go before truly entering human life. Some industry insiders believe that even in the entire intelligent robot industry, elderly - care robots may be the last to be implemented. Considering the cost and safety, a more practical approach at present (within 10 years) is to design more tools to assist caregivers, reducing their work intensity and fatigue. It is still unrealistic to completely let robots take over all care work.
After all, technology is not the goal but a means. When technology becomes an important support for elderly - care life, its greatest role is not to replace emotions but to create more discretionary time and more room for communication and interaction for the elderly and caregivers by improving the convenience of life, enabling the elderly to regain the dignity and hope of life.
How to Catch the Silver Wave?
At the beginning of 2025, Black Ant Capital released the "Research on the Consumption Demand Trends of the Energetic Silver - Haired Population: A Blue Ocean of Consumption Power in the New Era in 2024" (hereinafter referred to as the "Research"), focusing on the "new silver - haired population" aged 50 - 65 living in high - tier cities (first - tier and new first - tier cities) and summarizing their profiles: "The new silver - haired population has a comfortable economic situation and a high rate of home ownership; they have abundant leisure time, and more than 10 hours of personal discretionary time per day is the basis for the expansion of their activity radius, which gives rise to rich demands such as socializing, traveling, and self - entertainment."
There are two impressive points in the "Research". The first is the change brought by the Internet to the lives of the new silver - haired population. Internet platforms not only change the way the silver - haired population receives information but are also changing their consumption behavior and reconstructing their lives. The second is that most of the energetic silver - haired population living in high - tier cities are the parents of the first - generation only children. Their children often choose not to live with their parents and provide less in - person care.
The change in the elderly - care concept of the new silver - haired population is also obvious. Traditional concepts such as "self - sacrificing" and "raising children for old - age support" are gradually disintegrating. They are more willing to spend money on themselves, focus on their own needs, and put forward the concept of upgrading elderly - care for a quality life.
In recent years, as the post - 60s and post - 70s gradually retire, China's silver economy has shown new characteristics and trends.
There are "sunset red" tour groups traveling off - peak, elderly consumers shopping online in live - streaming rooms, and elderly students improving themselves in various interest classes and senior universities... From health preservation to travel and leisure, from diet and accommodation to hobbies, the elderly can be frequently seen at all consumption levels.
(Photo/ "The Old Guys")
Zhang Xueyong, the dean of the International Institute of Aging Science at Southwest Jiaotong University, said that the post - 60s and post - 70s in China are the generation that has enjoyed the dividends of reform and opening - up. Different from the traditional thrifty elderly in the past, they have a relatively high level of education, and their income and consumption levels have also increased significantly compared with the previous generation. They developed relatively diverse consumption habits in their middle - aged and young years and carried them into their old age.
"The silver economy has a wide range of coverage, a long industrial chain, and diverse business forms, covering the primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, which will bring benefits to industries such as tourism, elderly products, and intelligent devices." Zhang Xueyong pointed out that with the increasing service demand of the "new elderly", the silver economy will also give rise to more new industries and new tracks.
According to the data in the "Blue Book of the Silver Economy: Report on the Development of China's Silver Economy (2024)", the annual output value of China's silver economy is as high as 7 trillion yuan. When this seemingly large figure is placed in the overall GDP, it only accounts for 6%. Compared with other age groups, the consumption power of the elderly is still relatively low, and the main consumers in any country are the middle - aged and young.
(Photo/Visual China)
Before further exploring the potential of the silver economy, we must realize that the silver economy is not a natural "business opportunity".
The "Basic Data Bulletin of the Fifth Sampling Survey on the Living Conditions of Urban and Rural Elderly People in China in 2024" shows that in 2021, the annual per - capita income of the elderly in China was 32,027.4 yuan, of which the annual per - capita income of urban elderly was 47,270.8 yuan, and that of rural elderly was 14,105.4 yuan.
Chinese elderly people are generally not wealthy as a whole, and a considerable number of them are not in a consumption niche of "having money and leisure". Coupled with the influence of inter - generational issues, many elderly people have insufficient awareness of economic consumption, which also makes them the most vulnerable targets of the "elder - scamming economy".
It is more appropriate to say that the consumption of most elderly people is concentrated and single rather than that their consumption power is strong.
In this 7 - trillion - yuan big cake, there are many "elder - scamming" routines in the low - end sinking market: the legendary "99 - yuan ultra - low - price" strange tour groups in the tourism industry, health - product marketing, "financial management" of collectibles, and even telecom fraud... These "elder - scamming" routines take advantage of the price - sensitive psychology of many thrifty elderly people, reflecting the abnormal ecology of the Chinese elderly consumption market. Instead of providing high - priced and high - quality services, the focus of the silver market should be on eliminating low - quality products and scams that target the elderly.
Zhang Xueyong also emphasized that from the perspective of coping with aging, China is a large country with uneven development. There are both groups with strong consumption power and those who have just escaped absolute poverty. From this aspect, in addition to developing the silver economy, China also needs to solve the basic - guarantee problems by improving public services to ensure the health and life of the elderly.
Be an "Elderly Explorer"
"At the Southern Foot of the Yatsugatake Mountains, Until the End" is a mountain - living diary in which Japanese sociologist Ueno Chizuko first revealed her private life. More than 20 years ago, when she was in her 50s, Ueno Chizuko bought a piece of land at the southern foot of the Yatsugatake Mountains in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, and tried to live a mountain - living life away from the city, starting her practice of self - elderly care.
When this place became her habitat in her old age, the perfection degree of the medical system, elderly - care facilities, and nursing services became issues she had to consider. She began to form a mutual - assistance group called the "Cat's Paw Club" with a group of aging mountain - living elderly people, which not only improved the local environment but also solved her own elderly - care problem.
(Photo/ "Robot & Frank")
As the introduction of "At the Southern Foot of the Yatsugatake Mountains, Until the End" says: "Being old, living alone, and having no relatives are not problems. Establishing mature interpersonal relationships and being 'New Year's Eve family' is also good. Build a safe social security system together so that everyone can spend their last years at home with dignity."
Zhou Yuqiong, a professor at the School of Communication of Shenzhen University who is engaged in the research of aging communication, proposed in 2021 to replace the original "elderly communication" with "aging communication", regarding aging as a macroscopic basic structure and a continuous dynamic process, adopting a perspective of the whole population and the whole life cycle to form a social and cultural consensus about "old age".
Taking 46 as the watershed of her life and "rightfully" joining the middle - aged and elderly group, Zhou Yuqiong began to conduct research by "taking herself as a method": "Looking back on my own research process, from the 'curiosity' of peeping at a strange group at the beginning, to the'mercy' of trying to help the vulnerable group, then to the 'awe' of learning from the wisdom of the elders, and finally it all returns to the 'compassion' of 'having seen the vast world but still pitying the green grass'."
In the era of longevity, the traditional life logic of "learning - working - elderly care" is broken. With the extension of lifespan, old age is no longer simply a period of rest or even stagnation, but a long "second life" of continuous learning, creation, and development. In this process, society, families, and individuals all need to redefine elderly care - society and technology provide guarantees, families and communities provide emotional support, and the elderly themselves are responsible for exploring themselves and giving full play to their potential.
Everyone is a reconstructor of a better life,