Report predicts China to have 480 mln elderly by 2050

China's national committee on ageing has issued its first blue paper, which says that the country is in the initial stage of becoming an aged society. The paper says China currently has over 200 million elderly.

It predicts that number will grow to a staggering 480 million by 2050. That will represent a fourth of the world's estimated 2 billion senior citizens for that period in time. Within that Chinese group of elderly, there will be 30 million more women than men. The number of seniors aged above 80 is growing by one million every year.

By 2020, there will be an estimated 46 million disabled elders in China. The peak will hit in 2053, when the disabled elders will number over 100 million.