Nearly one out of every four people in the country will be older than 65 by the year 2050, demographers have forecast.
The country's population, currently 1.33 billion, will also not exceed 1.5 billion, Jiang Weiping, director-general of the China Population and Development Research Center, told a population forum on Wednesday.
The population will peak around the year 2040 at about 1.47 billion people before starting to decline, he said, citing a forecast from the center's population administration decision information system.
China's population will also make up 15 percent of the world's population, down from the longtime 20 percent and above, Jiang said.
The country's family planning policies have helped prevent 400 million births in the past three decades, according to statistics.
The country's current fertility rate is 1.8, which means every woman giving birth to 1.8 children. That rate is ideal, said Hania Zlotnik, director of the population division of the United Nations Secretariat.
A fertility rate lower than 1.5 or higher than 2.3 will be problematic, she said.
However, the aging trend is irreversible in China, as by 2050, 350 million out of the total 1.45 billion Chinese people will be aged over 65, Jiang said.
About 180 million people were older than 60 by last year, earlier population reports said.
