Abstract: Since the year 2012 saw a turning point of China s working age population，the issue of population ageing has increasingly been attached wide － spread significance to China s economic growth and national development In measuring population ageing，the traditional indicator of percentage aged 65 ( or 60) or over fails to capture the influence on ageing of the increased life expectancy Therefore，new measurement of ageing needs to be considered from the perspective of prospective age by which expected remaining years of life can be taken into account Two indicators，i e ，per-
centage of the elderly with prospective age of 65 or over ( with the year 2000 as reference) and proportion of the elderly with remaining life expectancy below 15 ( inclusive) ，are computed for China over the period from 2000 to 2050 using China s census and survey data and population projections In terms of the new measurement，levels of ageing and dependency ratio in China would be much lower，and the pace of ageing much slower，with the proportion of the elderly in the mid－century being 4－5 percent-
age points less than that from the traditional measurement A comprehensive understanding and thus holistic strategies are necessary to better achieve healthy ageing.