BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Chinese Culture 42% Chinese Families = Old Kidless Couple

With China's new policies on children, their culture is changing dramatically!! A new study shows that 42% of all families in China is now an older couple without any kids at home.

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

Interestingly, China's fertility rate from 2003 - 2007 is pretty stable around 1.7 - meaning it's less than 2 - meaning they are "losing population" over time. Which in my book is a very good thing, given how crowded they are. Wouldn't it be great if they got down to a level where there was enough land and food for everybody, and then maintained stable at that point?

They are #158 out of 217 countries -

BellaOnline ALERT: Raw URLs are not allowed in these forums for security reasons. Please use UBB code. If you don't know how to do UBB code just post here for help - we will help out!

This is wonderful news, Lisa. Learning that truly makes me happy and restores my faith that the world will be ok in the long run.

But on the same token, the fact that so many older couples are left without anyone to care for them is heartbreaking. I want to adopt all of them. hehe

Well it actually made me happy in the sense that they are finding local couples to "adopt" - which works out well for everyone. The young couples have wiser people to talk with and gain from, and the elderly people have young people to take care of them. So everybody gains from it.

And really the "overbalance" right now is only a temporary thing, as the population settles into its new shape. In a relatively short while, once that older population ages and passes away, they will settle down into a much more even distribution. So yes they definitely have to find solutions while they go through this phase but then everything will get so much better in terms of available food, available resources, housing size and so on.

Right. I know what you mean. Knowing that young people still care about and respect the elderly to a degree is promising and encouraging. I have thought about what things will be like when I am older and the generation coming into the world today will be taking "care" of our generation. The thought is a bit scary considering how young people today treat their elders. That will be passed down to their children and the cycle starts over. So knowing that youngsters do still care to some extent makes me happy.