Shanghai is growing old

SHANGHAI - One in four Shanghai residents is now over 60 years old, indicating an aging population in the eastern Chinese metropolis, demographic statistics have shown.

Shanghai, a municipality with 14.2 million permanent residents, registered 3.48 million people aged 60 or above by the end of 2011, a 5.1-percent increase year-on-year, according to data jointly released by the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau, the Shanghai Bureau of Statistics and the Shanghai Municipal Committee on Aging on Thursday.

Women rest under a tree in Shanghai, March 13, 2012. [Photo/Xinhua]

The data suggest that the city's elderly population has reached 24.5 percent, higher than the national figure of 13.7 percent.

The data also show the number of Shanghai residents above the age of 100 rose to 1,156 by the end of 2011, up from 306 ten years ago. Earlier reports said the average life expectancy of Shanghai residents stood at 82.5 in 2011.

China has seen a quickly aging population. The country's elderly population totalled 185 million at the end of last year, which is expected to climb to 221 million before 2015.