Beijing enters moderate aging society: official

BEIJING -- Beijing has entered a moderate aging society, with the permanent elderly population in the city reaching 4.95 million by the end of 2023, a civil affairs official said Thursday.

Guo Hanqiao, deputy chief of the municipal civil affairs bureau, told a press conference that the elderly accounted for 22.6 percent of the city's total permanent population.

Guo, also a bureau spokesman, said the city has developed a community-based nursing service model and plans to establish 100 elderly care service centers at subdistrict and township levels. As of Sept 20, 60 of them had been completed.

In addition, the city has stepped up professional home care to serve the bedridden elderly at home.

He Jingtao, deputy director of the city's commission of housing and urban-rural development, said other measures included elderly-oriented housing modifications, such as installing elevators at outdated residential communities.

By the end of August, more than 4,200 elevators had been installed for such communities in the city, benefiting approximately 50,000 households, He said.