China Elderly Care Services Market Size, Share, Trends and Forecast by Service Type, Application, Service Provider, and Region, 2026-2034

China Elderly Care Services Market Summary:

The China elderly care services market size reached USD 183.07 Billion in 2025. The market is projected to reach USD 362.08 Billion by 2034, growing at a CAGR of 7.87% during 2026-2034. The market is driven by national policy frameworks elevating elderly care to strategic priority status with comprehensive government investment exceeding RMB 560 billion between 2019 and 2024, rapid integration of artificial intelligence and robotics transforming service delivery models with the elderly care robot market surpassing RMB 30 billion, and expansion of integrated medical-care service models combining institutional, community-based, and home-based care through insurance company investments exceeding RMB 234 billion. These strategic developments are significantly expanding the China elderly care services market share.

China Elderly Care Services Market Outlook (2026-2034):

The China elderly care services market is predicted to increase steadily due to the country's rapidly changing demographics, as by 2035, there will be more than 400 million people over the age of sixty. Infrastructure development will be strengthened by the government's commitment to three-tier aged care networks at the county, township, and village levels as well as ongoing tax incentives and increased funding allocation. The integration of smart technologies including wearable health monitors, rehabilitation robots, and AI-powered care systems will enhance service quality and operational efficiency, creating new revenue opportunities across institutional, community-based, and home-based care segments throughout the forecast period.

Impact of AI:

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing China's elderly care services through multiple applications including predictive health monitoring, smart companion robots, rehabilitation assistance devices, and remote healthcare management systems. AI-powered robots are evolving from simple task executors into emotional companions capable of detecting seniors' emotional fluctuations, predicting health risks, and providing proactive personalized care. Smart mattresses with embedded sensors monitor heart rate and breathing in real-time for early health risk detection, while exoskeleton robots enable disabled elderly to perform rehabilitation exercises and regain mobility. The integration of AI with big data and Internet of Things technologies is enabling comprehensive health management platforms that bridge eldercare service gaps while fulfilling seniors' emotional companionship needs.

Market Dynamics:

Key Market Trends & Growth Drivers:

National Policy Frameworks and Silver Economy Development Driving Sector Expansion

The Chinese government has elevated elderly care to a national strategic priority through comprehensive policy initiatives that are fundamentally reshaping the sector's growth trajectory. In January 2024, the State Council released landmark guidelines on developing the silver economy to improve elderly wellbeing, marking the first dedicated document supporting this sector and signaling unprecedented government commitment to addressing demographic challenges. The Central Economic Work Conference in December 2024 further reinforced this priority by identifying active development of the silver economy as a critical measure for boosting consumption and expanding domestic demand in 2025. In addition to significant tax incentives for senior care facilities, such as exemptions from corporate income tax and value-added tax, the government showed a clear financial commitment between 2019 and 2024 by investing over RMB 560 billion in pension services and welfare, with an impressive annual growth rate of 11%. The State Council and the Communist Party of China Central Committee published comprehensive guidelines in January 2025 on strengthening basic elderly care services with an emphasis on seniors with disabilities. They also advocated for the development of humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, and artificial intelligence technologies to improve the provision of senior care. The government's strategy plan calls for the creation of model communities and about ten industrial parks devoted to the silver economy. It also requires that at least 55% of the money earned through the nation's welfare lottery be used to support senior care services. This multi-faceted policy framework, combining financial resources, regulatory support, and technological innovation incentives, is creating an enabling environment that accelerates private sector participation, stimulates infrastructure development, and positions China as a global leader in addressing aging population challenges through systematic, well-funded interventions.

Smart Technology and AI Integration Transforming Service Delivery Models

Through innovations that improve both operational efficiency and senior quality of life, artificial intelligence, robots, and Internet of Things technologies are quickly changing the landscape of elder care in China. According to the government's Development Action Plan for the Smart Elder Care Industry (2021-2025), wearable health monitoring devices for heart health and blood pressure, rehabilitation tools like exoskeleton robots, and intelligent care systems like smart wheelchairs, transfer machines, and nursing beds are all essential smart products. China's elderly care robot market exceeded RMB 30 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach RMB 50 billion by 2025 with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 30 percent, reflecting explosive demand for technological solutions. During the 2025 Spring Festival in February, Kenqing Technology successfully deployed its exoskeleton robots to assist elderly users in climbing Taishan Mountain, one of China's most iconic mountains, sparking widespread online discussion and revealing significant unmet needs among seniors for high-quality assistive technology products. The International Electrotechnical Commission recently released global standards for elderly care robots, led by China in formulation, establishing technical benchmarks for product design, manufacturing, testing, and certification that position Chinese manufacturers at the forefront of global innovation. Smart mattresses with embedded sensors now monitor heart rate and breathing in real-time for early health risk detection, while AI-powered companion robots are evolving beyond simple task execution to become emotional companions capable of detecting seniors' emotional fluctuations and predicting health risks. A strong basis for further innovation has been established by the quick development of 5G networks, cloud computing, and big data analytics as well as the maturation of essential parts like AI chips, sensors, and servo motors. This technological transformation is enabling new business models including remote health monitoring, virtual nursing homes through Internet of Things integration, and personalized care planning, fundamentally changing how China addresses the challenges of caring for its rapidly aging population while creating substantial market opportunities for technology providers and service operators.

Expansion of Integrated Medical-Care Service Models and Diversified Delivery Channels

The China elderly care services market growth is being propelled by the evolution of comprehensive service integration combining institutional, community-based, and home-based care models that address diverse elderly needs across the socioeconomic spectrum. By the end of 2024, the country had established 406,000 elderly care institutions and facilities offering 7.99 million beds, with the proportion of nursing-care beds significantly increasing from 48 percent in 2020 to 65.7 percent, demonstrating systematic capacity expansion and quality improvement. Insurance companies including Taikang, Ping An, and Taiping have invested over RMB 234 billion in the elderly care sector through direct and indirect equity investments in upstream and downstream medical and health industries, establishing integrated "insurance + healthcare + elderly care" ecosystems that link financial security with service delivery. Ten insurance institutions have invested in 47 elderly care community projects providing more than 84,000 beds across key cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. In March 2024, Taikang Community introduced advanced healthcare monitoring systems across its nationwide facilities, enhancing its integrated insurance-healthcare-eldercare ecosystem that operates across 22 key cities accommodating approximately 55,000 senior citizens. The development of Continuing Care Retirement Communities utilizing membership card models allowing residents to obtain living and service rights through high-value, inheritable, and transferable cards represents an innovative financing mechanism unique to the Chinese market. Home care and community care now account for over 90 percent of elderly care delivery, with smart nursing homes providing "virtual nursing home" services through Internet of Things and remote healthcare technologies that alleviate resource shortages. While the government is creating three-tier elderly care networks at the county, township, and village levels to coordinate home-based and community-based care with institutional support, Beijing, Shanghai, and other top cities are testing "family bed" models that combine intelligent devices to provide home care and health management. This diversification of delivery channels, supported by both public funding and private capital investment, is creating a balanced ecosystem that offers elderly citizens choices ranging from affordable community-based services to premium retirement communities, while insurance-backed models are addressing the critical challenge of long-term care financing sustainability.

Key Market Challenges:

Critical Workforce Shortage and Professional Talent Deficit

China faces an acute and escalating shortage of approximately 10 million elderly care workers, creating a fundamental bottleneck that threatens the sector's ability to meet rapidly growing demand from an aging population. The deficit is particularly severe for high-quality specialized nursing personnel and management professionals capable of implementing modern, technology-enabled care delivery systems. The sector struggles with multiple interconnected challenges including high labor intensity with physically demanding tasks, persistently low salaries that fail to attract qualified candidates, and low social status that carries stigma associated with caregiving roles, collectively making it extremely difficult to attract and retain skilled professionals over the long term. Less than one-third of direct care workers offering senior care services, according to even the most optimistic estimations, have any professional training. This leads to pervasive capability gaps that compromise service quality and restrict the implementation of sophisticated care approaches. The majority of personnel in senior care are middle-aged or elderly women from rural areas without extensive education, reflecting the sector's inability to attract younger, qualified workers who instead choose better-paying alternatives such as nannies or factory work. Career paths for elderly care workers are highly fragmented, depriving them of opportunities to accumulate skills or qualifications and advance professionally, which perpetuates high turnover rates and prevents development of institutional expertise. While the government has introduced initiatives including establishing elderly care service majors at vocational colleges, implementing nursing talent subsidy programs, and in 2019 removing the junior high school education requirement for senior carers to encourage inflow, these measures have not yet bridged the substantial gap between supply and demand. The shortage directly undermines efforts to improve service quality, implement innovative technology-driven care models, and drive sustainable development across institutional, community-based, and home-based care settings, threatening to constrain market growth even as demographic pressures intensify demand.

Structural Imbalance and Uneven Resource Distribution

Despite significant expansion of elderly care infrastructure, China continues to grapple with structural imbalances that manifest in both inadequate overall capacity and severe geographic disparities in resource allocation. Although there are currently about 30 senior care beds for every 1,000 senior citizens in the nation, this number is much behind the growing demand, especially for elderly people with disabilities who need specialized medical and nursing care—roughly 44 million people as of 2022. There is a serious lack of professional institutions with complete medical and nursing capacities that can handle complex chronic diseases and provide dignified end-of-life care, making the supply of high-quality aged care services woefully inadequate. Due to past growth patterns and investment objectives that benefited coastal urban centers, elderly care resources are still unequally distributed, with significant discrepancies between urban and rural areas as well as between different regions. Millions of senior citizens in rural areas have limited access to even basic care services when their adult children move to cities in search of work due to severe facility and professional service personnel shortages. With the basic pension insurance fund making up 70% of the market in 2020, occupational pension plans making up nearly 30%, and commercial insurance making up almost nothing, the three-pillar structure of China's pension system is still seriously out of balance and limits the purchasing power of senior citizens for private care services. Mid-range nursing institutions, which are in greatest demand from middle-income elderly seeking quality care at affordable prices, face persistent bed shortages and struggle to meet needs of the majority who cannot afford premium facilities but require more than basic government services. Geographic concentration of high-quality services in first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen creates accessibility barriers for elderly populations in second, third, and fourth-tier cities who face limited choices and must often choose between relocating away from family networks or accepting substandard care, exacerbating social inequities in health outcomes during later life.

Supply-Demand Mismatch in Service Quality and Affordability

The numerous, multi-level needs of China's senior population across various economic levels, health problems, and cultural preferences are fundamentally at odds with the aged care services now offered in the market. As senior citizens' consumption habits shift from necessities to higher-quality experiential services, current market offerings are largely limited to basic daily care activities and medical support services, failing to meet the evolving demand for comprehensive solutions encompassing health management, cultural activities, social engagement, emotional companionship, and personalized care planning. High-quality services are concentrated in premium facilities with prohibitive entry costs that exclude the vast majority of elderly citizens, exemplified by Taikang Home's requirement for a RMB 2 million insurance fee for admission and monthly charges ranging from RMB 10,000 to RMB 20,000, creating substantial barriers for middle and lower-income individuals. The high living and care costs in Continuing Care Retirement Communities pose insurmountable financial obstacles for average citizens, particularly as income levels required for access significantly exceed regional averages, limiting these innovative models to wealthy retirees while most elderly struggle to access even adequate basic services. Simultaneously, the market lacks affordable yet quality products tailored for mass adoption, with advanced AI-powered elderly care robots costing over RMB 140,000 and rehabilitation models often exceeding RMB 100,000, placing technological innovations beyond reach of typical households despite their potential to transform home-based care. Mid-range institutions face operational challenges generating sufficient revenue to cover costs while maintaining affordable pricing, resulting in bed shortages at facilities most needed by the middle class who comprise the largest demographic segment. The supply-demand mismatch extends beyond affordability to encompass service design that often fails to respect elderly citizens' cultural preferences, with many offerings designed around operational efficiency rather than dignity, autonomy, and quality of life considerations that elderly consumers increasingly prioritize. Additionally, the market lacks sufficient specialized services for specific conditions such as dementia care, palliative care, and rehabilitation for disabled elderly, forcing families to piece together fragmented solutions or provide care themselves without adequate support, perpetuating the burden on family caregivers particularly women who face expectations to sacrifice careers for eldercare responsibilities.

China Elderly Care Services Market Report Segmentation:

IMARC Group provides an analysis of the key trends in each segment of the China elderly care services market, along with forecasts at the country and regional levels for 2026-2034. The market has been categorized based on service type, application, and service provider.

Analysis by Service Type:

• Adult Day Care
• Institutional Care
• Home Care

The report has provided a detailed breakup and analysis of the market based on the service type. This includes adult day care, institutional care, and home care.

Analysis by Application:

• Respiratory Diseases
• Diabetes
• Osteoporosis
  • Heart Diseases
• Neurological Diseases
• Kidney Diseases
• Arthritis
• Cancer

A detailed breakup and analysis of the market based on the application have also been provided in the report. This includes respiratory diseases, diabetes, osteoporosis (heart diseases), neurological diseases, kidney diseases, arthritis, and cancer.

Analysis by Service Provider:

• Private
• Public

The report has provided a detailed breakup and analysis of the market based on the service provider. This includes private and public.

Analysis by Region:

• North China
• East China
• South Central China
• Southwest China
• Northwest China
• Northeast China

The report has also provided a comprehensive analysis of all the major regional markets, which include North China, East China, South Central China, Southwest China, Northwest China, and Northeast China.

Competitive Landscape:

The China elderly care services market demonstrates a dynamic competitive landscape characterized by diverse participants including large insurance conglomerates, real estate developers, specialized care operators, and technology companies converging to capture opportunities in this rapidly expanding sector. Insurance giants such as Taikang, Ping An, and Taiping dominate the high-end segment through integrated "insurance + healthcare + elderly care" ecosystems, leveraging substantial capital reserves to develop premium continuing care retirement communities and establish comprehensive service networks. Competition increasingly revolves around service quality, brand reputation, technology integration capabilities, and ability to offer full-spectrum solutions spanning financial planning, health management, and lifestyle services. The market is witnessing intensifying consolidation as leading companies expand scale through mergers and acquisitions while smaller institutions differentiate through specialized services including dementia care, rehabilitation programs, and cultural tourism offerings. Foreign players including Japanese, American, and European operators are entering through joint ventures and partnerships, bringing international best practices and operational expertise that elevate industry standards and intensify competitive pressure on domestic providers to enhance service quality and innovation.

China Elderly Care Services Industry Latest Developments:

• March 2024: Taikang Community, China's largest insurance-based senior care provider, introduced advanced healthcare monitoring systems across its nationwide facilities. The company operates elderly care communities in 22 key cities across the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and other regions, with capacity to accommodate approximately 55,000 senior citizens. The enhanced monitoring systems strengthen Taikang's integrated "insurance + healthcare + elderly care" service model.
• February 2024: Vanke Senior Care launched new smart senior living communities equipped with AI-powered assistance systems across multiple Chinese cities. The facilities integrate intelligent technologies for health monitoring, emergency response, and daily living support, representing Vanke's strategy to leverage artificial intelligence and smart home technologies in expanding its elderly care service portfolio and enhancing quality of life for residents.
• March 2024: Beijing's Xicheng district launched its inaugural "migratory" long-stay tourism program, with seniors departing for Beihai in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The program represents implementation of December 2024 government guidelines advocating development of silver tourism and long-term stay markets, promoting establishment of wellness sojourn destinations tailored to elderly travelers' health and leisure needs while supporting the broader silver economy development strategy.

China Elderly Care Services Market Report Coverage:

Key Questions Answered in This Report:

• How has the China elderly care services market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years?
• What is the breakup of the China elderly care services market on the basis of service type?
• What is the breakup of the China elderly care services market on the basis of application?
• What is the breakup of the China elderly care services market on the basis of service provider?
• What is the breakup of the China elderly care services market on the basis of region?
• What are the various stages in the value chain of the China elderly care services market?
• What are the key driving factors and challenges in the China elderly care services market?
• What is the structure of the China elderly care services market and who are the key players?
• What is the degree of competition in the China elderly care services market?

Key Benefits for Stakeholders:

• IMARC's industry report offers a comprehensive quantitative analysis of various market segments, historical and current market trends, market forecasts, and dynamics of the China elderly care services market from 2020-2034.
• The research report provides the latest information on the market drivers, challenges, and opportunities in the China elderly care services market.
• Porter's five forces analysis assist stakeholders in assessing the impact of new entrants, competitive rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, and the threat of substitution. It helps stakeholders to analyze the level of competition within the China elderly care services industry and its attractiveness.
• Competitive landscape allows stakeholders to understand their competitive environment and provides an insight into the current positions of key players in the market.