Statistical analysis on spatial and temporal patterns of the Chinese elderly population.

China contains over one-fifth of the world population. Over the past 20 years, the Chinese population has been ageing rapidly due to the dramatic family planning programs enforced by the Chinese government. These family planning programs have been implemented gradually during the last two decades and the programs implemented were varied from region to region. In this study, we statistically examined the spatial and temporal patterns of the processes of the Chinese elderly populations among the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities (P/A/M) from 1953 to 1994. The D-statistic was used in assessing the spatial autocorrelation for the proportions of the elderly population of the 30 (29) P/A/M in the Chinese mainland. The simple T-statistic was used in measuring the temporal changes since 1953. The spatial and temporal patterns were statistically significant according to the testing statistics. We also found that the proportions of the elderly population were highly correlated with the population densities of the P/A/M. We linked these statistical results with the changes in the socio-economic situations since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949.