China’s senior care robot market is forecast to hit at least 202.176 billion yuan (US$29.15 billion) in 2030, a recently released study finds.
The study, published by ChinaIRN.com, a market intelligence provider, issues forecasts about senior care robots in 2020-2025 and how changes in the supply-demand relationship will affect the industry.
The report points out that as robotic care-givers steadily enter the lives of senior citizens, the awareness of their value will be on the rise, in tandem with a growing desire to buy or rent these equipment.
Demand for these robots is set to boom and even spike in three to five years, says the reports.
This revelation came as China is grappling with a fast graying population and the consequences thereof.
According to some estimates, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the number of Chinese citizens 60 and older will exceed 300 million, or more than 20% of the nation’s entire population.
Therefore, officials have highlighted the need in various documents and policies to develop inclusive senior care service, rolling out a raft of policies to meet the demographic challenge.
One of them is to encourage robots to play a bigger role in providing company and attending to the elderly in lieu of human care-givers, of which there is a severe shortage.
This goal is currently held back by various constraints. The ChinaIRN.com study suggests that China act more aggressively to prop up growth of senior care robotics, as well as take proactive measures to commercialize the sector.
By providing robots to replace human care-givers or plug the labor shortfall, the country can partially relieve the burden of an aging society, the report concludes.
