Research On The Differences In Pension Demand Between Urban And Rural Areas In China And Its Response Strategies

Data from the seventh population census show that China’s aging population is worsening.China has become the world’s largest elderly population and one of the fastest aging countries in the world.At the same time,China’s aging also presents a unique urban-rural inversion phenomenon.It is increasingly difficult to solve the problem of population aging.The aggravation of the aging trend promotes the rise of pension demand.In addition,the number of disabled and semi-disabled elderly,empty-nesters and elderly people is increasing.The demand for the aged presents the characteristics of diversification and dynamic.However,so far the development of the aged service system in our country is still relatively backward.The vitality of the elderly care service market has not been thoroughly stimulated.The long-term urban-rural dual economic structure makes social security for the aged unbalanced between urban and rural areas in our country.The old-age needs of the elderly group are not met.There is a serious imbalance between supply and demand.In this context,the state issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of National Old-age Underpins and Old-age Service System" in 2022 to implement the national strategy of actively responding to the aging population,promote the coordinated development of old-age underpins and industries,expand the supply of old-age services,promote the balanced allocation of old-age resources,and build and improve the basic,inclusive and diversified old-age service system.Continuously meet the growing multi-level,high-quality healthy pension needs of the elderly.Based on this,this paper defines the concept of pension demand from the perspective of providing for the old.Taking the urban-rural differences in the aging population and the basic characteristics of the elderly in our country as the starting point,this paper deeply discusses the similarities and differences in the structure of pension demand and the differences in the demand level of the elderly in urban and rural areas,and finds out the key factors affecting the demand of the elderly in urban and rural areas.Finally,it puts forward targeted countermeasures and suggestions to meet the differentiated needs of the elderly in our country and promote the development of the cause and industry of the elderly in our country.The main contents and viewpoints of each chapter are as follows:The first chapter is the "introduction".This part introduces the research background from the aspects of the increasing trend of population aging,the difficulty of meeting the pension needs and the coordination of urban and rural development,and discusses the theoretical and practical significance of the research on the pension needs of the elderly in urban and rural areas.It also sorts out the research status of domestic and foreign scholars on the demand for the aged an d its influencing factors,and briefly expounds the research ideas and methods of this paper,as well as the innovations and deficiencies of this paper.The second chapter is "related concepts and theoretical basis".In this part,the concepts of the elderly population,pension needs and urban-rural differences involved in this paper are strictly defined.Meanwhile,the theoretical basis of this paper is analyzed in detail,which are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory,ERG needs theory,dual economic structure theory and welfare pluralism,so that the whole paper is supported by arguments.The third chapter is "the basic characteristics of the elderly population in urban and rural areas and the difference in pension needs".This chapter mainly uses the comparative analysis method to compare the basic characteristics of the elderly in urban and rural areas,including the inversion of China’s aging population between urban and rural areas,the prominent phenomenon of "empty nesters" in rural areas,the large gap between the self-rated health status of the elderly in urban and rural areas,and the low level of education of the elderly in rural areas.Secondly,the basic status quo of the gradually diversified,personalized and intelligent needs of the elderly in urban and rural areas is summarized.Finally,according to the experience of previous scholars,the pension needs are divided into economic needs,care needs and spiritual comfort needs.Through the statistics and comparison of CHARLS2018data: In terms of economy,the income level and source of the elderly in urban and rural areas vary greatly;In terms of life care,the physical health of the elderly in rural areas is worse,and the care methods are similar between urban and rural areas.In terms of spiritual comfort,the rural elderly have disadvantages in terms of mental health problems.Compared with the urban elderly,the elderly in rural areas have a lower level of pension security,and the proportion of people with economic needs,care needs and spiritual comfort needs is higher than that of the urban areas,indicating that the supply gap of the elderly in rural areas is higher than that of the elderly in urban areas.The fourth chapter is " the empirical analysis of the different influencing factors of the elderly demand in urban and rural areas".Firstly,according to literature review and data availability,this part divides the influencing factors into personal characteristics,family characteristics and social characteristics,and statistically describes these three dimensions from the perspective of urban-rural comparison.Secondly,the Logistic regression model is used to analyze the differences in the influencing factors of the economic,care and spiritual comfort needs of the elderly in urban and rural areas.The study mainly finds that the uneven distribution of resources under the dual economic system causes the characteristics of the elderly in urban and rural areas at the individual level,and has the same or different effects on the needs of the elderly in urban and rural areas.First,gender,education level,physical health status,participating in various insurance and social activities have the same impact on the economic needs of the elderly in urban and rural areas;The number of children,the frequency of children’s visits and marital status only affect the rural elderly;There are differences between urban and rural areas in the economic needs of the elderly.Second,age,physical health status and social activities have the same impact on the care needs of the elderly in urban and rural areas;Gender and marital status only have an effect on the rural elderly.Third,gender,education level,physical health status,participation in insurance and social activities have the same impact on the needs of spiritual comfort of the elderly in urban and rural areas;The frequency of children’s visit and marital status only affect the rural elderly;There are differences between urban and rural areas in the demand for spiritual comfort of the elderly.The fifth chapter is "countermeasures and suggestions to cope with the differentiated needs of the elderly in urban and rural areas".On the basis of the analysis of the first four chapters,in order to meet the different needs of the elderly population in urban and rural areas,combined with the current strategy of coping with aging in China and the future development trend,this paper puts forward feasible countermeasures under different dimensions,which are led by the government and supplemented by market operation.At the economic level,we should improve the fairness of social security transfer payment,improve the economic independence of the elderly and play the role of land security for the rural elderly.At the level of care,we should improve the health level of the elderly and narrow the health gap between urban and rural areas.Strengthen the construction of formal care mode of our country.In terms of spiritual comfort,the government should highlight its responsibility and attach importance to "spiritual support".And adjust the distribution of resources to help rural revitalization,improve the construction of pension laws and the development of rural mutual aid pension model and other supporting measures.The main research features and innovations of this paper are as follows:First,under the background of urban-rural dual system and based on the reality of increasing aging and urban-rural inversion in China,this paper makes a comparative study on various differences in pension needs between the elderly in urban and rural areas,and further explores the main influencing factors of the differences in pension needs.Second,in view of the differentiated pension needs of the elderly population in urban and rural areas,the paper puts forward differentiated coping strategies.Under the situation of uneven old-age security level in urban and rural areas,it is more practical to put forward targeted suggestions to solve the differentiated old-age needs of the urban and rural elderly in our country from the aspects of economic needs,care needs and spiritual comfort needs.At the same time,it is also innovative to give full play to the role of land security for the rural elderly and develop rural mutual pension.