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

BEIJING - China's working age population would fall more than 23 percent to around 700 million by the year 2050, according to data released Friday by a human resource official.

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

The figure will see a "sharp decline" after 2030, shrinking 7.6 million each year on average, Li said, without further elaboration.

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.