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By Micah McCartney
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As China's birthrate plummets, empty kindergartens are finding new life as nursing homes.
These transitions come as the world's second-most populous country grapples with its lowest birthrates in decades and an aging population, forcing both the education and elderly care sectors to adapt.
According to a recent report by Chinese state-controlled media outlet Global Times, a former kindergarten in the southern province of Guangdong has been converted into one such home for the elderly.
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The director of a 25-year-old private kindergarten, Zhuang Yanfang, closed the school in 2023 after years of plummeting births. Kindergartens across the country have been struggling, hit by rising overheads as schools compete for fewer children.
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More than half China's kindergartens are privately funded. According to Xiong Bingqi, director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, only those that can adapt will survive in this difficult landscape.
At the end of 2021, the country had 294,800 kindergartens nationwide, according to the Ministry of Education. This figure had dropped to 289,200 followed by a twofold drop in 2023 over the previous year.
Zhuang had opened Beiyuan No. 1 Kindergarten in 1998, and it reached a peak of 300 students. However, by last year, the school had only a fifth of that number, leading to its closure.
"Now, I feel that private kindergartens have fulfilled their 'historical mission,'" Zhuang told the Global Times.
Today, the institution houses 10 elderly residents, all over 80 years of age. It has received financial support from the local government as well as a government-backed construction company, which covered half the renovation costs.
Additionally, volunteers from local companies and universities regularly come to engage with the residents, while a geriatrician from a local public hospital visits weekly to offer free clinics. The facility provides a range of activities, from painting to games such as chess, to keep its residents occupied.
The model is reportedly spreading, with kindergarten owners in other major cities including Shenzhen, Jinan, and Taiyuan reportedly adopting similar approaches.
The media outlet cited Chinese sociologists and demographers who praised the transition as a forward-looking move to support what the paper called "the flourishing silver economy."
China is rapidly becoming a super-aged society, with those over 65 making up nearly 20 percent of the population. According to the World Bank, this percentage is projected to hit about 28 percent within the next 20 years.
Like their East Asian neighbors, Chinese policymakers fear that this demographic shift will negatively impact the country's limited social safety nets and drag on productivity. This has led them to consider controversial moves, including raising the statutory retirement age.
China's birthrate fell for the seventh consecutive year in 2023, following the population dip in 2022 that marked the first decline since the Great Famine of the 1960s.
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