(Yicai) Dec. 15 -- As a result of China’s rapidly ageing population, the average age of someone working in the country is pushing 40, according to a new report.

The labor force’s average age was 39.4 in 2021, up from 32.3 in 1985, the report published recently by the Central University of Finance and Economics showed. Rural male workers are the oldest group, at 40.4.

By region, workers in northeastern provinces are the oldest, at 41.2 in Heilongjiang, 40.8 in Liaoning, and 40.6 in Jilin. The provincial-level areas with younger workers included Hainan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Tibet Autonomous Region.

An aging labor force will crimp innovation and production efficiency, adversely affecting economic and social development, Li Haizheng, a professor at the university, told Yicai. To increase the amount of human capital, China should optimize its population structure, boost the fertility rate, and raise the level of people's education, he added.

China’s human capital growth, which reflects the value of workers' knowledge and skills and is mainly measured by personal incomes in the report, is slowing as the labor force ages. The mean annual growth rate in urban areas fell to 9.1 percent in 2021 from 15.3 percent in 2010, and that in rural areas fell to 4.3 percent from 8.4 percent.

Chinese workers received an average of 6.1 years to 10.8 years of schooling in the period between 1985 and 2021, climbing to 11.7 years from 8.2 in the cities and to 9.2 years from 5.5 in the countryside.

The education gap associated with gender is closing, according to the report. The average length of schooling for urban women surpassed that of men in 2020, but the gap between urban and rural areas has not yet improved significantly.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev