Spatial Differences in China's Population Aging and Influencing Factors: The Perspectives of Spatial Dependence and Spatial Heterogeneity

Since China became an aging society in 2000, the regional inequality of population aging has been highlighted, and the phenomenon of "aging before getting rich" has gradually become a core issue in China's coordinated socioeconomic development. This paper aims to comprehensively assess the spatial differences and driving forces of China's population aging through two-stage nested Theil decomposition, ESDA, and spatial econometric models. Empirical results show that spatial differences in population aging were evident at different spatial scales, and the distribution gradually decreased from east to west, showing a positive spatial correlation of similar value aggregation. Moreover, China's population aging was determined by the demographic, socioeconomic, and natural environment, and there are different leading factors in different regions. The demographic aspects played a decisive role and had a direct influence, while the socioeconomic and natural environment indirectly affected population aging through demographic factors and became the root cause of regional differences in population aging. These findings provide an empirical basis for establishing a cooperative mechanism and formulating a targeted response to the problem of population aging in various regions in China.