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In 2023, China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region surpassed the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning, and Jilin to become the region with the oldest workforce at the provincial level, driven by young people seeking better opportunities elsewhere, recent data shows.
“The age composition in Inner Mongolia and the northeastern provinces is influenced not only by local demographic changes but also by migration patterns,” explained a researcher from the China Center for Human Capital and Labor Market Research at the Central University of Finance and Economics, which published the China Human Capital Report 2025 on December 14. “Migration is directly impacted by industrial structures, government policies, and support measures.”
Historically, Inner Mongolia relied heavily on industries like coal mining and rare earth extraction. However, as the region undergoes industrial restructuring and environmental regulations tighten, many jobs in these traditional sectors have vanished. Meanwhile, newer industries are still developing, with limited high-quality employment opportunities available. Wages in Inner Mongolia also lag behind those in eastern China, prompting many young residents to relocate to coastal or more economically advanced regions in search of jobs, said a population expert.
In 2023, Inner Mongolia’s birth rate was just five per thousand residents. Although it increased slightly to 5.52 per thousand in 2024, death rates continued to surpass birth rates, resulting in a negative natural population growth rate of minus 2.84 per thousand.
In contrast, Liaoning province experienced a net inflow of 86,000 residents in 2023, ending an 11-year streak of population loss since 2012. Jilin province saw its population drain slow to 153,700 people in 2023, down from 270,000 in 2022 and 240,000 the previous year. Additionally, Changchun, Jilin’s capital, attracted and retained over 100,000 university graduates for the first time in 2023.
The regions with the youngest labor forces, ranked from youngest to oldest, include southern Hainan province, Tibet Autonomous Region, southern Guangdong province, southwestern Guizhou province, and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Aging of the workforce is an inevitable national trend. From 1985 to 2023, the average age of employed workers increased from 32.25 to 39.66 years. The proportion of those under 15 years old among the employed population dropped from 38.6% in 1985 to 22.7% in 2023, while those aged 46 and above in the workforce grew from 10.4% to 23.8%.
Despite shrinking and aging workforce numbers, the overall quality of human capital is improving. The total human capital stock reached CNY 1.1 quadrillion (USD 154.6 trillion) in 2023, a rise of CNY 240 trillion (USD 34 trillion) from the previous year.
Even with an aging and decreasing labor force, total human capital continues to expand largely due to rising education levels, as new entrants typically possess higher human capital than retirees.
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