Number of seniors in city now more than 5 million

Shanghai's population of seniors grew 2.9 percent in 2019 from a year earlier, accounting for more than 35 percent of permanent residents, the city's senior work office announced on Saturday.

The number of people aged 60 or above reached 5.18 million by the end of 2019, or 35.2 percent of permanent residents. Among them, 52 percent were female.

Hongkou, Huangpu and Putuo districts had the highest percentage of seniors, with 41.1 percent of Hongkou's permanent residents.

The age group between 60 and 64 accounted for 30.2 percent of the senior population, the highest percentage, followed by 27.2 percent of those between 65 and 69, according to the office.

The city had 2,729 centenarians by the end of last year, or 18.6 centenarians among every 100,000 permanent residents.

The Pudong New Area, Huangpu and Xuhui districts had the largest number of centenarians, at 560, 261 and 243 while Huangpu, Hongkou and Xuhui districts had the highest percentage of centenarians per 100,000 permanent residents, according to the office.

The number of centenarians increased most sharply among all elderly age groups in the city, growing 8.5 percent last year from a year earlier, followed by the age group above 65, rising 7.3 percent.

The average life expectancy of local citizens reached 83.66 years last year, compared with 83.63 in 2018.

It was 81.27 for males, and 86.14 for females.

The top three killers were circulation system diseases, cancer and respiratory system diseases.

A total of 317,400 seniors in the city lived alone by the end of last year.