ABSTRACT

This chapter focuses on the socio-demographic processes which affect the likelihood of the rural elderly in China to enjoy the social support required for their overall well-being. The dependency ratio mainly reflects the load of a given social group on the economy of a society. A comprehensive social security system was initiated to ensure retirees with housing, health care, and an old-age pension. Senior citizens living in rural China are constitutionally entitled to housing, food, clothing, health care, and burial, which are the five basic rights of all citizens of the People's Republic of China. Yet, formal support services for the elderly are scarce and as long as such services are unavailable in rural China legislation is one, uncostly, mechanism which protects them from abandon. The chapter examines how morbidity and disability changed with aging in rural China and how the elderly perceived their own health.