China's working age population to fall 23 pct by 2050

China's working age population would fall over 23 per cent to around 700 million by the year 2050 from the present level of 910 million, a senior official said.

The working age population, those aged 16 to 59, has been declining since 2012 and it is expected to reach 830 million in 2030, Li Zhong, spokesperson of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said.

The figure will see a "sharp decline" after 2030, shrinking 7.6 million each year on average, Li was quoted as saying by state-run Xinhua news agency.

China's working age population dropped by 4.87 million to 910.96 million in 2015, up from the previous year's drop of 3.71 million, according to statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Amid growing pressure from an aging population and a decrease of people of working age, China abandoned its decades-long one child policy in 2015, allowing all couples to have a second child.

China's President Xi Jinping held a brainstorming session with officials about China's fast graying society as the number ofpeople above 60 years in the world's second largest economy has crossed 220 million, constituting 16 per cent of the total population.