Aging Population in Hk

In the past, many people dead in childhood due to sickness and improper medical treatment, which enzymes and bacteria can easily kill them. However, with the development of medical technology, such as introduction of new treatments like antibacterial, people can combat many diseases and have a longer life, and the death rate can be lowered. Hence, as Hong Kong is a stable place, it can make people in Hong Kong live longer. Hong Kong is a stable place without the threat of civil wars and lack of essential resources like water and food, compare with some undeveloped countries. In addition, the Hong Kong government also maintain stability by making policies such as food hygiene policy. With maintaining stability, people can live longer then. The above conditions lead to the increasing longevity of Hong Kong people, which caused the aging population in Hong Kong. Declining birth rate In the past 50 years, there was a baby boom occurred in Hong Kong. People at that time did not concern about the cost of bring the child up and the problem of population explosion, which lead to the high birth rate at that time. After reaching 1980s, the birth rate started to be declined. This is mainly due to higher education rate in HK, when there is a higher educates rate, less female would unwilling to born more children. Hence, fearing from financial burden, as it bringing a child up requires a high cost, families are unwilling to give birth to child. Moreover, people are more likely to settle down at a later age, form their families when they become old, this also lead to a low birth rate. In fact, the low death rate could bring few negative effects. However, when there is a declining birth rate, the young age group cannot support the size of old age group born in the baby boom. This will lead to a serious problem. In short, a declining birth rate and a low death rate caused the aging population. Situation in Hong Kong In Hong Kong, the population sizes of youngsters are keeping decreasing with a decrease of 17. 9% in 33 years. In contrast, the number of old people are keeping increasing, it is estimated in 2033, the old age group will become one-forth of the whole population. Hence, there is a decreasing trend in birth rate in 40 years with a drop of 1500 babies per year. Nevertheless, the trend grow again since 2005 due to migration from Mainlanders, they could only be able to work until 2030,which may hard to combat the problem. To conclude, the problem of aging population is serious. Impact of aging population In medical aspect, aging population may increase medical expenditure of government because elderly people may have the high risk of chronic diseases. Due to increases of medical services, the demand of doctor and nurses would also be increased. However, the government may not have enough money to provide better medical services as a lower tax income. This may lead to poor quality of medical services. From the point of view of the government, aging population reduces the government’s income as providing more welfare and medical care for elderly. It would also affect the GDP of HK due to more elderly people and less working population, which reduce Hong Kong’s economic development. HK competitiveness in the world may be seriously affected. In social aspect, aging population may increase the pressure of working force, as they need to pay more tax to government for providing better medical services and welfare, even though the demand of productivity at will be high and high salaries will be paid in the future. On the other hand, it may also enhance the problem of poverty as they may unable to work after retired. Suggestions of aging population From the above passage, we can see that aging population will cause a high expenditure and welfare on the government. The aims of the solutions below are to solve these problems. To start with, the government can solve the problem by Enabling older individuals to keep economically active. For example, the government can employed these old age people part-time works to enhance productivity. It can also encourage them to spend more money to enhance the economy by encourage them to travel in Hong Kong, such as the $2 Public Transport Concessions for the elderly. For those retired who are poor and disable to work, the government should put more resources to help them maintain a living. For example, increase the amount of welfare on the poor, or provide resources to some fund, which helps the old age groups, such as the Community Collusion Fund. On the other hand, the government should also cut some welfare, for example, the introduction of the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) can let the old people save money itself for entire when they are working; the issue of health care voucher can reduce the burden of the government-owned health system. These measures can help the government to reduce the welfare.