五险一金在中国是一笔越交越重的账：缴费基数年年涨，税务接手后追缴更狠，失业了要自费续交，可将来能领多少没人说得清。这里记录社保怎么收、怎么花、分给了谁。
According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2026, China's population aged 65 and above reached 224 million in 2025, accounting for 15.9%, exceeding for the first time the share of the 0-to-14 age group at 15.1%; the old-age dependency ratio of 23.1% surpassed the child dependency ratio of 22% for the first time.
On October 25, Yicai reported that as the number of children declines, kindergartens in many places are being converted into nursing homes, and preschool teachers are changing careers to care for the elderly. In 2025, China's old-age dependency ratio exceeded the child dependency ratio for the first time, with the population aged 65 and above exceeding the 0–14 age group by 10.89 million.
On October 23, Chinese Premier Li Qiang presided over the State Council executive meeting, calling for accelerating the building of a fertility-friendly society, improving policies on marriage, childbirth, child-rearing and education, optimizing family support measures such as fiscal and tax, social security and housing policies, and striving to stabilize the scale of the newborn population.
On October 21, a netizen in Shandong posted a video saying that the month's pension, which he had reported the previous day, had not arrived on time, resonating with many other netizens; after consulting the local Social Security Bureau, he was told that it would arrive in batches over the following days. As of October 22, some netizens still had not received their pensions and were comforting one another.
On October 20, Gelonghui released data on sex ratios by birth order for 31 provinces (municipalities) based on the 2020 China Census Yearbook: nationally, the sex ratio for first births was 113.17, for second births 106.78, and for third births it rose to 132.93, with Hubei's third-birth sex ratio reaching as high as 177.42, Anhui at 165.95, and Fujian at 164.49.
On October 19, the Weibo topic “Why young people don’t pay social insurance” trended on the hot search list. Netizens generally attributed it to low incomes, and called for the implementation of an eight-hour workday, no fewer than eight rest days per month, strict punishment for wage arrears, and compensation guarantees for layoffs.
On October 16, the Hanshan county media account "Yujian Hanshan" in Anhui posted a video explaining that children may contribute extra funds to help their parents pay the annual urban and rural residents' pension insurance after the payment is completed; in the comments section, a netizen complained, "Can't I just give my parents the money directly?"
On October 15, a netizen posted chat screenshots claiming that police in a certain place in Guangdong were requiring landlords to evict tenants who had not paid social insurance, saying that those without jobs cannot rent homes, and that temporary workers and food delivery riders were also among those being evicted. The day before, another netizen had already posted asking whether one could rent a home without paying social insurance, sparking discussion.
On October 15, a netizen posted that the Hubei Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security had launched the "Sheyin Loan" service as early as June 19, 2025, drawing attention.
After the netizen posted a video mocking social insurance back-payments, their account avatar and ID were reportedly cleared. Netizens in the comments section sarcastically remarked, among other things, "In the midst of laughter and talk, the avatar vanished into thin air."
On October 15, a blogger on Bilibili posted a video saying that his video “Social insurance can be ‘mandatory,’ so why isn’t the two-day weekend mandatory?”, published on August 27 last year, had surpassed one million views, but was suddenly taken down two days ago, and he showed a screenshot of the takedown notice.
Many places across the country have been intensively carrying out social security publicity campaigns under the theme “everyone fulfills their duty, everyone enjoys the benefits,” sparking widespread discussion among netizens about the flaws in the social security system and about forced mobilization.
On October 14, human resources and social security departments across various regions officially launched the “Social Security Services Go into Every Household” campaign, publicizing policies on pensions, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance and other insurance programs on site and providing convenient services to the public.
Recently, China's human resources and social security departments have proposed finding uninsured groups through various methods and pushing more people to enroll in social insurance.
On October 14, Shantou in Guangdong rolled out themed buses and ferries for mobile outreach on social security policies, saying the shift is from "people looking for policies" to "policies finding people," with a focus on serving flexible workers, migrant workers and other groups. Netizens joked, "I will find you, whether north or south, east or west."