First, the burden of old-age security is getting heavier and heavier. In 2004, the total expenditure of basic old-age insurance in China reached 350.2 billion yuan, up by 65.5% compared with 2000, and the subsidy expenditure of the central government for basic old-age insurance climbed to 52.2 billion yuan. Retirement and resignation expenses also show a trend of soaring year by year. The government, enterprises and society all feel that the pressure of old-age security is obviously increasing.

Second, the pressure of medical and health expenditure for the elderly is increasing. According to estimates, the medical and health resources consumed by the elderly are generally 3-5 times that of other people. In 2004, the expenditure of the national basic medical insurance fund reached 86.2 billion yuan, accounting for 75.5% of the fund's income, an increase of 3 1.6% over the previous year, and the growth rate was 3.5 percentage points faster than the fund's income. The rapid aging of population is one of the important reasons for the rapid growth of basic medical insurance fund expenditure.

Third, the demand for services for the aging society is expanding rapidly. At present, the aging of the elderly population and the empty nest of elderly families in China are obvious. In 2005, the number of elderly people over 80 years old in China exceeded160,000, and the proportion of elderly families in cities was about 40.3%, while that in rural areas was about 37.8%, and it showed an increasing trend. Coupled with the disabled population among the elderly, the number of nursing services is very large, while the development of existing social services is relatively backward.

Take the old-age care institutions and the number of beds as examples. At the end of 2005, there were 39,500 social welfare institutions for the elderly in China, with beds1497,000, with an average of beds 10 for every thousand elderly people. In developed countries, the average number of old-age beds per thousand elderly people is about 50-70. According to a survey conducted by the National Working Committee on Ageing, about 5% of the elderly want to live in an old-age care institution. In this way, there are more than 7 million beds, which is a big gap and needs to be accelerated.

Fourth, compared with cities, the pressure to solve the problem of rural aging is greater. Nearly 60% of the elderly population in China live in rural areas. The degree of aging in rural areas is higher than that in cities and towns 1.24 percentage points. At the same time, the social endowment insurance system has not been established in most rural areas, the new rural cooperative medical system is still in the pilot stage, and social security such as farmers' pension and medical care needs to be strengthened. With the acceleration of population aging process, the pressure of old-age care and medical care in rural areas will be more prominent than that in cities and towns, especially in western and poverty-stricken areas.