China's population is expected to grow from 1. cing aging of its population and the senescence process develops rapidly. Since 1990, the aged population (people over 60 years) has increased at an average annual rate of 3.32%. In the 21st century, China has entered the aging society. In 2005, 11% of Chinese population, i.e. 144 million people, are older than 60 years of age. The number of Chinese senior citizens over 65 years old has amounted to 100 millions, accounting for 7.7% of the total population. By 2040, the number will have increased to about 374 million, accounting for about 25%, thus making China the largest aging society in history (Tables 1, 2 ). The change of population will have major effects on oral health [1] . In the same time, many rural people have rushed into the city, altering the rural to urban population proportion a great deal (Table 3) . The rural population has decreased from 73.6% of the total population in 1990 to 57.0% in 2005. A few years later, this proportion will further decrease to about a half. Meanwhile, the great changes in lifestyle will affect their general and oral health. These demographic changes will alter disease patterns, cultural attitudes, health behaviors and the health care delivery systems and services. [2] . Economic development has instigated the development of general medical health care and oral health care. However, despite the high growth rate of GDP, the spending on public health care, especially the oral health care, remains low, as seen by the average spending on health care per person [3] [4] [5] (Tables 4, 5). The data are calculated at current prices. 