Beijing enters moderately aging society: report

(ECNS) -- Beijing's population of people aged 60 years and above surged to 4.416 million at the end of 2021, accounting for 20.18 percent of the megacity's total, according to a report released by the municipal government on Friday.

It indicates that the city has entered a moderately aging society.

The year 2021 has witnessed the largest increase of the aging population as well as the highest growth rate over the past five years in Beijing, said the report, which was jointly released by the Beijing Municipal Working Commission on Aging and Beijing Municipal Committee on Ageing on the Smart Health and Retirement Conference held during the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS).

Beijing's permanent residents aged 60 years and older in 2021 increased 117,000 from the previous year, the report said.

The population aged 65 and above was 3.116 million, accounting for 14.24 percent of the total permanent population, an increase of 204,000 compared with 2020.

Among them, there were 3.883 million registered population aged 60 and above, accounting for 27.5 percent of the total; 2.792 million registered population aged 65 and above, accounting for 19.8 percent of the total.

According to international standards, a region enters a moderately aging society when the proportion of the population aged 60 and above is between 20 percent and 30 percent, or the proportion of the population aged 65 and above is between 14 percent and 20 percent.