China's population aging deepens with 18.7% aged 60 or above

China's population on the mainland has grown by an average annual rate of 0.53 percent from 2010 to 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday, citing data from the seventh national census conducted last year.

The rate was slightly lower than the average annual growth of 0.57 percent from 2000 to 2010, according to the NBS.

"Data shows that China's population has continued to maintain slow growth in the past decade," said Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS.

China has conducted a national census every 10 years since the 1990s. The country's population on the mainland has reached 1.41178 billion, up 5.38 percent from 2010, the latest census data showed.

The figure does not include Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan residents and foreigners who live in the mainland's 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities, according to the NBS.

Aging further deepens

Chinese people aged 60 or above account for 18.7 percent of the total population, 5.44 percentage points higher than the level in 2010 when the previous census was conducted.

The total population of Chinese people on the mainland aged 60 or above has reached 264.02 million, including 190.64 million people aged 65 or above, or 13.5 percent of the total population, said the NBS.

"Data shows the aging of the Chinese population has further deepened, and we will continue to face the pressure to achieve long-term balanced population development," said Ning.

The census also found 63.35 percent of the country's population was aged 15-59, and the proportion of Chinese people aged 0-14 reaches 17.95 percent, 1.35 percentage points higher than the 2010 level.

China's population grows 0.53 percent on average annually in past decade.

The gender ratio of China's population falls slightly to 105.07.

China's population living in urban areas on the mainland totaled 901.99 million, representing 63.89 percent of the total.

The proportion of ethnic minority groups in China's mainland population has risen to 8.89 percent, according to data from the latest national census conducted in 2020.

The proportion was up 0.4 percentage points from 2010, when China conducted its previous census.

The population of ethnic minority groups increased 10.26 percent to 125.47 million from 2010, while that of Han Chinese grew 4.93 percent to 1.28631 billion, accounting for 91.11 percent of the total population, the NBS data showed.

China's population will stay above 1.4 billion "for a certain period in future," said Ning.