Population of Beijing growing, aging

The population of Beijing reached 21.89 million in 2020, with an average annual growth of 1.1 percent annually over the past 10 years — slower than it was between 2000 and 2010, according to the city government on Wednesday.

The number of permanent residents in the city increased by 2.28 million over the past decade, said Meng Jingwei, head of Beijing's municipal bureau of statistics, citing data from the seventh national census conducted last year.

Of the total population, the number of residents aged 60 or older was more than 4.29 million last year, accounting for 19.6 percent of the city's permanent residents, reflecting an ongoing trend toward an older average age.

The city's permanent population from outside last year was around 8.42 million, accounting for 38.5 percent of the total. That figure was up by 19.5 percent compared with the level 10 years ago.