(Bloomberg) -- China’s plan to end birth limits could be coming just in the nick of time.
The world’s second largest economy has aged rapidly over the last two decades just as prosperity began to rise. The Chinese miracle happened despite the albatross of the roughly four-decade-old birth limit policy that spurred countless human-rights abuses and has created a worker shortage.
In considering ending the policy, China need only look to Japan where the population has aged so rapidly that sales of diapers for adults outpace those for babies.
Here are three charts courtesy of Bloomberg’s Michael McDonough to provide perspective:
China’s birth rate has remained above the death rate, unlike Japan where deaths have outnumbered births since 2006.
China’s demographic “sweet spot” has been predicted to end within the next decade without changes to the birth limit policy.
China’s population pyramid shows the country’s evolution from a nation of workers to retirees.
©2018 Bloomberg L.P.
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