City's seniors on the rise, with 3,509 centenarians

Shanghai's elderly population grew more than 87,000, or 1.6 percent, in 2021 from a year earlier, accounting for more than 36 percent of permanent residents, the city's senior work office announced on Friday.

The number of people aged 60 or above reached 5.42 million by the end of 2021, or 36.3 percent of permanent residents, compared with 36.1 percent from 2020.

Of this, 52 percent were female.

Hongkou, Huangpu and Putuo districts had the highest percentage of seniors, with 43.2 percent of Hongkou's permanent residents aged 60 or more.

The city had 3,509 centenarians by the end of last year, or 23.5 centenarians among every 100,000 permanent residents. The figure was up 429 from a year earlier. Among these centenarians, 2,640 were female.

The Pudong New Area, Huangpu and Xuhui districts had the largest number of centenarians, at 721, 306 and 305 respectively, while Huangpu, Hongkou and Jing'an districts had the highest percentage of centenarians per 100,000 permanent residents.

The age group between 70 and 79 accounted for 30.2 percent of the total senior population in the city, the highest percentage, followed by 28.5 percent of those between 65 and 69.

In total, 15.5 percent were those aged at or above 80.

The average life expectancy of local citizens reached 84.11 years last year, compared with 83.67 in 2020. It was 81.76 for males, and 86.56 for females.

The top three killers were circulation system diseases, cancer and respiratory diseases, leading to 45.1, 28.6 and 7.1 percent of deaths of the city's elderly population respectively.

A total of 318,300 seniors in the city lived alone by the end of last year and 23,700 were childless.

By the end of 2021, the city had registered 730 senior homes with 158,600 beds, up 1 percent from a year earlier.