Pension reforms in China are the focus of a forum that opened in Beijing on Saturday.

According to government officials attending the forum, the number of people in China aged over 60 years, reached 194 million by the end of 2012. The number is expected to surpass 200 million by 2013. And by 2050, predictions are there will be 480 million citizens aged over 60. That’s a third of China’s population then. This would also mean that around a quarter of the world’s aged population will be in China.

However, the country’s current pension system and supporting facilities have not been able to cope with the ageing society. For example, at the end of 2012, China had only 44 thousand nursing homes, providing a little more than four million beds for the aged.