Zhou Haiwang, deputy director of population and development studies under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, stated at a recent forum that Shanghai needs to expand its population to 35 million by 2050 to offset the effects of a rapidly aging population, South China Morning Post reported. Zhou estimates that the percentage of the population aged over 60 years will climb from 4.6 million next year to 7.7 million in 2030, and 11 million after 2045. This imbalance between workers and elderly will need to be offset by an increased population. Liang Zhongtang, a demographer with the academy, added that in order to draw more laborers, “What we need from the government is less intervention and more market reform in order to lower the threshold to entering the service industry.”