党的十一届三中全会以来,我国的经济建设、综合国力、人民生活水平都上了一个大台阶。随着人民生活逐步改善,科学文化、卫生保健事业的发展,计划生育政策的成功实施,我国人口老龄化迅速发展。近10年来,老年人口增长的速度是总人口增长速度的2倍;现全国老年人已达1亿零300万人,其中80岁以上的高龄老人约占10％。据国家统计局预测,21世纪初我国的人口类型将完成向老年型的转变,然后向高度老龄化发展。随着工业化、城市化、现代化的发展,家庭规模日趋小型化,家庭养老功能将逐渐削弱,越来越多的老年人逐步依赖社会供养,社会负担必然加重。早在10年前聂荣臻等老一辈无产阶级革命家就看出这一趋势,提出要把老龄问题提高到战略高度来认识,开拓发展。如今,我们正处在新旧世纪之交,要把老龄问题放到长远角度来考虑,不仅着眼于本世纪,而且要着眼于21世纪,研究如何抓紧本世纪这7年,为21世纪做好准备。 Since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party, our country has reached a large stage in its economic construction, overall national strength and people’s living standards. With the gradual improvement of people’s lives, the development of science and culture, health care and the successful implementation of family planning policies, the population aging in our country has been rapidly developing. In the past 10 years, the elderly population has grown at a rate twice as fast as the total population. Now there are over 130 million seniors across the country, of which 10% are elderly people over the age of 80. According to the projections of the National Bureau of Statistics, the population of our country in the early 21st century will complete the transition to the elderly type and then to a high degree of aging. With the development of industrialization, urbanization and modernization, the scale of families is getting smaller and the family pension function will be gradually weakened. More and more elderly people will gradually rely on social support and the social burden will inevitably increase. As early as 10 years ago, Nie Rongzhen and other proletarian revolutionaries of older generations saw this trend and proposed raising awareness of the issue of aging to a strategic height and exploring development. Now we are at the turn of the century between the new century and the old one. We must think about the issue of aging in the long run not only in this century but also in the 21st century and in studying how to grasp the seven years of this century and prepare for the 21st century .