On November 28, 2025, Aegon THTF Life Insurance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Aegon THTF Life") joined hands with the China Center for Insurance and Risk Management (CCIRM) of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management (hereinafter referred to as "Tsinghua SEM") to co-host the launch conference of the "2025 Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index Research Report" (hereinafter referred to as "the Report") under the theme "Tsinghua Jointly Empowers, Nurtures a Secure Future". The conference brought together experts, scholars from academia and industry, as well as media guests, announced the 2025 Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index of 5.49, and conducted in-depth discussions on how to reshape the logic of retirement preparation against the backdrop of overlapping trends such as the prolonged low-interest rate cycle, demographic structure transformation, and economic environment fluctuations.

GAO Feng, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Tsinghua SEM; FENG Runhuan, Chair Professor of Tsinghua SEM; ZHENG Bingwen, Director of the World Social Security Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; ZHU Qingguo, General Manager of Aegon THTF Life; ZHAO Lei, Deputy General Manager of Aegon THTF Life; TONG Boning, Deputy General Manager of Aegon THTF Life; and REN Xiaoshu, Assistant General Manager of Aegon THTF Life attended the conference.

Welcome Speeches: Taking "Wisdom" as the Gnomon, Insight into New Directions of Elderly Care

At the beginning of the conference, representatives of the organizers delivered speeches respectively. GAO Feng, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Tsinghua SEM, stated in his speech: "How to ensure every elderly person enjoys a happy old age and every family copes with elderly care challenges calmly has become an era-wide issue of common concern to the whole society. The key prerequisite for accurately grasping the priorities and breakthrough points of elderly care needs lies in scientifically measuring the public's retirement preparation status. Since 2013, the Chinese Center for Insurance and Risk Management of Tsinghua SEM has joined hands with Aegon THTF Life to continuously carry out the research on Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index, and constantly optimize research methods to accurately evaluate residents' retirement preparation status from dimensions such as retirement responsibility awareness, financial planning, and savings behavior. This research provides important decision-making references for all sectors of society and contributes Tsinghua's wisdom to promoting the improvement of China's elderly care security system. The Retirement Readiness Index is not only a systematic review of the current elderly care situation but also an active exploration of the future elderly care cause. We look forward to using research data to support more targeted policies that meet people's livelihood needs, promote innovation and upgrading in elderly care-related fields, and help the public establish scientific elderly care concepts and plan life blueprints in advance."

GAO Feng, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, delivering a speech

ZHU Qingguo, General Manager of Aegon THTF Life, mentioned in his speech: "Currently, the dual challenges of low interest rates and demographic structure transformation overlap, while the emerging group of 'new seniors' pursuing high-quality life is on the rise. Facing the changes of the times, policies, academia, and enterprises must join forces. The responsibility of Aegon THTF Life is to transform the uncertainty of the future into tangible sense of security for customers through elderly care financial innovation. This report, which has been released consecutively for 12 years, is like a sundial in Tsinghua Garden, recording the evolution of China's elderly care concepts. Standing at a new starting point, it has become a 'sundial of collective wisdom'. In the future, we will continue to join hands with Tsinghua to contribute wisdom and strength to the high-quality development of China's elderly care cause."

ZHU Qingguo, General Manager of Aegon THTF Life, delivering a speech

Index Announcement: Cognitive Improvement, a Critical Transition for Behavioral Transformation

Witnessed by the participating guests and media, representatives of the two parties jointly announced the 2025 Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index - 5.49. The release of this index provides an important quantitative basis for objectively evaluating the retirement preparation status of Chinese residents.

This index is basically the same as that in 2024. Residents have achieved significant improvements in retirement responsibility awareness (7.45) and financial planning cognitive level (7.36), but retirement plan completeness (3.82), retirement savings adequacy (3.78), and residents' confidence in obtaining expected income (4.85) show the characteristics of "improved cognition, lagging behavior, and under pressure confidence". This reflects that Chinese residents' retirement preparation has entered a critical transition stage from conceptual cognition to behavioral transformation.

FENG Runhuan (first from the right), Chair Professor of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management; ZHU Qingguo (second from the left), General Manager of Aegon THTF Life; ZHAO Lei (first from the left), Deputy General Manager of Aegon THTF Life; and TONG Boning (second from the right), Deputy General Manager of Aegon THTF Life, jointly announcing the 2025 China Resident Retirement Readiness Index

Authoritative Interpretation: Analyzing Connotations, Precise Policies to Promote Balance

After the index announcement, FENG Runhuan, Chair Professor of Tsinghua SEM, gave a professional and in-depth interpretation of the report. China has entered a "deeply aging society". From 2015 to 2024, the elderly population aged 65 and above increased from 145 million to 220 million, with a net increase of nearly 75 million; at the same time, the working-age population decreased by more than 44 million. FENG Runhuan pointed out that this indicates that the "demographic dividend" cornerstone supporting the economy is loosening. However, a more symbolic change is reflected in the dependency ratio: the elderly dependency ratio has risen sharply from 14.3% in 2015 to 22.8% in 2024. The elderly support burden has exceeded and continued to be higher than the child support burden for the first time, and society has completed a historic transformation from "supporting the future" to "supporting the past".

FENG Runhuan, Chair Professor of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, delivering a speech

The 2025 Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index is 5.49, a slight increase compared with 5.34 in 2024. FENG Runhuan explained in detail from the dimensions of income, group portraits, and income replacement rate.

In terms of income dimension, the overall pattern of the Retirement Readiness Index is "increasing with income growth", but the gap between different income groups has narrowed, with the low-income group achieving particularly significant improvements. At the same time, there is obvious overlap in the quantile distribution between different income groups, and some low-income individuals have a higher preparation level than some high-income individuals. FENG Runhuan emphasized that income is not the only factor determining retirement preparation; financial literacy, risk awareness, savings willingness, and social security participation also play important roles.

In terms of group portraits, people with high preparation index have the characteristics of being post-80s, married, self-rated good health, master's degree or above, working in state-owned enterprises or foreign/Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan-invested enterprises, and having high personal income and financial literacy.

In addition, the special topic on income replacement rate introduces the income replacement rate as a result-oriented indicator complementary to the Retirement Readiness Index. FENG Runhuan pointed out that groups with higher Retirement Readiness Index generally have higher expected income replacement rate, and there is a significant positive correlation between the two, which verifies the internal consistency between "process preparation" and "economic results".

The report shows that in terms of expectations for elderly care life, residents generally hold a rational and pragmatic attitude. Most hope to maintain their current living standards, and home-based independent elderly care remains the preferred model. High-quality institutional elderly care shows a moderate upward trend among well-prepared and elderly groups. FENG Runhuan believes that the current elderly care needs of residents are transforming from single economic security to multi-dimensional balance of health, care, and quality of life.

Residents' choices of elderly care finance generally show the characteristics of "stability-oriented and intergenerational stratification". The personal pension system has been promoted rapidly, but there are still obvious shortcomings in cognitive popularization, incentive intensity, and product adaptation. From the intergenerational perspective, all generations share the common feature of low-risk preference, but their differentiated choices are determined by their life cycle positions: people born in the 1970s and earlier pay more attention to capital security and commercial health insurance protection; post-80s and post-90s seek balance between house purchase, child-rearing, and elderly care, tend to have low-risk products as a guarantee, and have balanced demand for commercial pension insurance and health insurance; post-00s are brave in trying diversified allocation and prefer products with high flexibility. The overall preference for personal pension products follows the order of "pension savings > pension insurance > pension wealth management > pension funds". High-income groups and groups with high retirement preparation have a stronger preference for pension insurance than pension savings. Residents' liquidity tolerance for personal pension products is higher than that for ordinary financial products, and the tolerance generally matches the liquidity characteristics of the selected products.

Facing the current challenges, FENG Runhuan put forward systematic suggestions: promote the application of retirement preparation measurement in elderly care financial services and provide residents with retirement planning tools that meet their needs; steadily improve the multi-level elderly care security system and enhance the accessibility and incentive intensity of personal pension accounts; continuously promote the popularization of financial knowledge and retirement planning education to promote the transformation from "cognition to action"; enhance the portfolio effect of elderly care financial products to better match the needs of different groups; promote the coordinated development of health management and retirement planning to enhance residents' long-term sense of security. Insurance institutions can continue to explore the development path of "long-term protection + stable investment + appropriate services" under regulatory guidance to provide stable and professional support for improving the retirement preparation level of Chinese residents.

A roundtable discussion titled "Wisdom in Elderly Care Under the Low-Interest Rate Cycle" was specially set up at the conference. The guests included ZHENG Bingwen, Director of the World Social Security Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; FENG Runhuan, Chair Professor of Tsinghua SEM; and TONG Boning, Deputy General Manager of Aegon THTF Life. The guests conducted in-depth discussions on topics such as how to carry out structural reforms to cope with the long-term pressure of "one increase and one slowdown", the impact of the superimposed trends of low interest rates and longevity on ordinary people and the subversion of the traditional concept of "savings for elderly care", the pressure faced by the design and profit model of elderly care financial products, and the experience of structural reform of the international pension system, and shared cutting-edge insights.

Roundtable discussion on "Wisdom in Elderly Care Under the Low-Interest Rate Cycle"

From left to right WANG Haihong, General Manager of Aegon THTF Life Beijing Branch,;ZHENG Bingwen, Director of the World Social Security Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; FENG Runhuan, Chair Professor of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management; TONG Boning, Deputy General Manager of Aegon THTF Life

Click here to download 2025 Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index Survey Report

About the "Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index Survey Report"

To scientifically and systematically understand the retirement preparation status of Chinese residents, Aegon THTF Life Insurance Co., Ltd. and the China Center for Insurance and Risk Management of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management launched the China Resident Retirement Readiness Index research project in 2013 and has released the "China Resident Retirement Readiness Index Research Report" for 13 consecutive years. The purpose is to put forward practical suggestions for the current situation and existing problems of Chinese residents in retirement preparation, and provide references for the government to formulate and improve corresponding endowment insurance systems and policies, for enterprises to understand employees' retirement life needs and formulate and improve employee welfare plans accordingly, and for individuals to formulate and improve scientific and reasonable retirement plans.

The 2025 survey is the 13th consecutive year of the "Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index Survey" project. This survey still adopts the questionnaire survey method, and combines the actual situation of Chinese residents' elderly care preparation and some significant hot issues to form the "2025 Chinese Resident Retirement Readiness Index Questionnaire", which not only reflects the characteristics of current Chinese residents' retirement preparation but also can be compared vertically with previous research results.

To scientifically analyze the retirement preparation status of Chinese residents, we continue to use the six dimensions selected in previous years, and calculate the China Resident Retirement Readiness Index by using six indicators, namely retirement responsibility awareness, financial planning cognitive level, financial problem understanding ability, retirement plan completeness, retirement savings adequacy, and confidence in obtaining expected income, with corresponding weights assigned to each indicator. The Retirement Readiness Index ranges from 0 to 10, with a higher value indicating more adequate retirement preparation. A value of 8-10 is a high retirement readiness index, indicating very adequate retirement preparation; a value of 6-8 is a medium retirement readiness index, indicating a certain degree of retirement preparation that needs to be further improved; a value below 6 is a low retirement readiness index, indicating insufficient retirement preparation that requires attention.