Article at a glance:

The aging of China

China's favorable demographics have helped drive the country's economic growth: a huge pool of low-cost labor has fueled an unprecedented manufacturing boom, while rising numbers of young, middle-class urban couples have spent generously on housing, automobiles, consumer goods, and other products and services. But the average age of the population is rising as well, and that will have implications for economic growth, government policy, and business strategy.

The take-away

Although in the short term China's demographic trends will continue to support robust consumption, in the longer term they will be less helpful for economic growth. An aging population and a need for higher-skilled workers will call for new policies on everything from job training to government pensions and for the close attention of both domestic and foreign companies in China.