The State Council executive meeting held on February 24 studied work related to promoting the development of the silver economy and elderly care services.

The meeting pointed out that my country’s silver economy has great potential, and it is necessary to improve support measures, strengthen policy implementation, promote the development of elderly care and the elderly care industry, and provide strong support to cope with the aging of the population. It is necessary to further unleash the consumer demand of the elderly, enhance consumption capacity, give play to the guiding role of consumer subsidies and other policies, and create a number of new consumption scenarios and new business formats for the elderly. It is necessary to promote the quality and expansion of the supply of inclusive elderly care services, improve the elderly care service system that is graded and classified, universally accessible, covering both urban and rural areas, and sustainably developed to better ensure that the elderly have adequate care. It is necessary to strengthen the safety management of elderly care institutions, promptly investigate and resolve hidden risks, severely crack down on false propaganda, illegal fund-raising and elderly care fraud, and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the elderly.

Industry experts believe that the meeting was based on the new development situation of population aging and further clarified the development direction of the silver economy and elderly care services. The meeting proposed specific measures such as “increasing consumption capacity, giving full play to the guiding role of consumption subsidies and other policies, and creating a number of new consumption scenarios and new business formats for the elderly”, which will help to break development bottlenecks in a targeted manner and inject strong development momentum into the trillion-dollar silver market.

At the end of December 2025, eight departments including the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly issued the "Several Measures on Cultivating Elderly Care Service Business Entities to Promote the Development of the Silver Economy" and introduced 14 specific measures to further cultivate elderly care service operating entities and promote the development of the silver economy. Previously, at the end of November 2025, six departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Implementation Plan on Enhancing the Adaptability of Supply and Demand for Consumer Goods to Further Promote Consumption," proposing the goal of forming three trillion-level consumption areas and 10 hundreds of billions-level consumption hotspots by 2027. Among them, trillion-level consumption areas include elderly products, etc.

According to Wang Yongchun, the full-time deputy secretary-general of the China Aging Industry Association, under the dual role of policy support and market drive, the scale of my country's elderly care industry continues to expand, gradually forming a new development pattern led by smart development and featuring regional differentiated layout, and has become an important supporting force for stabilizing people's livelihood and promoting employment.

“In the future, enterprises related to my country’s silver economy should closely follow the recent policy guidance and focus on areas such as smart elderly care, silver tourism, and education for the elderly to better meet the diverse needs of the elderly.” Wang Yongchun said that among them, “artificial intelligence + elderly care” will breed more new consumption scenarios and new business formats, and fields such as smart health equipment, telemedicine, and aging-friendly transformation will become new growth points.

In order to better ensure that the elderly have adequate care, the meeting focused on the deployment of "promoting the quality and expansion of the supply of inclusive elderly care services" and proposed "improving a graded and classified, universally accessible, urban and rural coverage, and sustainable development of the elderly care service system."

Li Jia, deputy director of the Institute of Aging Society of Pangu Think Tank, said that the core of "improving quality and expanding coverage" emphasized at the conference is to enable every elderly person to enjoy high-quality and accessible elderly care services. "The policy focuses on the supply of inclusive elderly care services, promotes the extension of the elderly care service system to urban and rural grassroots, and strengthens the construction of elderly care service networks." He predicts that policy measures will be further refined, and policies such as consumption subsidies for elderly care services and support for elderly care institutions will be implemented, while at the same time accelerating the safety standardization of elderly care institutions.

Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs shows that as of the end of 2024, the country’s elderly population aged 60 and above will reach 310 million. In the face of profound changes in the demographic structure, Wang Yongchun pointed out that under the guidance of policies, my country's elderly care and elderly care industry are gradually entering a new stage of systematic construction and high-quality development from the stage of "making up for shortcomings".

From a scale perspective, the silver economy is accelerating its implementation at the national strategic level and has become an important growth point for expanding domestic demand, stabilizing growth, and benefiting people’s livelihood. The "Silver Economy Blue Book: China's Silver Economy Development Report (2024)" shows that the current scale of China's silver economy is about 7 trillion yuan, accounting for 6% of GDP, and is expected to increase to 30 trillion yuan in 2035, accounting for 10% of GDP.

“Generally speaking, the deployment of this meeting is essentially to ‘set up a framework and set the direction’ for the development of the silver economy and elderly care services, and closely integrate the development of the silver economy with the elderly care industry and the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly.” Peng Xizhe, Dean of the Institute of Aging at Fudan University, said According to the report, facing the "15th Five-Year Plan", the coordinated development of the silver economy and the elderly care industry will have two key directions. One is to continue to accelerate the construction of an efficient, integrated and sustainable elderly care service system; the second is to strengthen the empowerment of silver technology and the expansion of application scenarios, so as to drive the silver economy to achieve great leaps.