Spatiotemporal Dynamic Characteristics and Causes of China’s Population Aging from 2000 to 2020

Abstract

Aging involves the transformation of the population reproduction mode under the rapid development of the social economy. We studied population survey data based on the WorldPop population statistics website and used ArcGIS to construct a spatial database and implement spatial analysis methods. In this study, we analyzed the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of population aging and its main influencing factors in counties of China, in order to provide a reference for the formulation of a national population development policy and the construction of a pension system. The results are as follows: ① The situation of population aging in China is becoming more serious, showing a point-line-area spatial pattern and two core–periphery aging patterns of high core–low periphery and low core–high periphery. ② The speed of population aging in China is characterized by rapid growth, large scale, and a high degree. Large areas of growing old before getting rich have emerged in the central and western regions. ③ The aging of the population has gradually spread to the northeast, southwest, northwest, and other regions. Influenced by factors such as population migration, population structure change, transportation facility construction, and geographic environment changes, a trend of aging that has spread across the Hu Huan-Yong line has appeared.