With Beijing's permanent population reaching 15.36 million, the percent of older people is on the rise, with that of youngster declining and its citizens are much better educated than five years ago, according to the city's statistics bureau.

 

The capital city's permanent population jumped 1.54 million in the first five years of this century and men outnumber women by 200,000, the Beijing News reported Friday.

 

Some 83.6 percent of the city's permanent population, or 12.84 million people, are permanent residents -- or holders of the Beijing "hukou", a permanent household registration certificate issued by the local public security authorities -- up 6 percent compared with 2000.

 

The 2.52 million rural residents who live in outlying regions of the municipality make up 16.4 percent of Beijing's permanent population, the statistical bureau found in its latest survey.

 

The survey does not include more than 4 million migrant workers from rural areas outside Beijing or other cities who do not have permanent residency status. This would make the actual number of people who live in Beijing close to 20 million.

 

The survey found Beijing had 1.57 million children under the age of 14 at the end of 2005, accounting for 10.2 percent of its permanent population. This is down by 3.38 percent from the 2000 figure.

 

The number of senior citizens over 65 years old, however, totaled 1.66 million, making up 10.8 percent of the permanent population, an increase of 2.37 percent from five years ago.

 

Beijingers are also better educated, according to the survey which shows 3.62 million Beijingers are now college graduates, or an increase of 30 percent or 1.29 million more than the figures in 2000.

 

The bureau reports that Beijing had 5.24 million families at the end of 2005, with an average 2.71 people each. In 2000 the average Beijing family had 2.91 people.

 

Those who only completed elementary schooling totaled 2.12 million at the end of 2005, down 220,000 from the turn of the century.

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2006)