Study gives a snapshot of Beijing growth

Population ticks down slightly and is getting older; education level high

The population of Beijing dropped slightly and is getting older, but residents are more educated, according to a study released on Sunday.

The capital's registered resident population in 2017, including registered migrants, was 21.7 million, 22,000 fewer than the previous year, according to a blue book released by the Beijing Population and Development Research Center and the Social Sciences Academic Press on Sunday.

Experts say that the decline is the result of some labor-intensive industries having been moved out of the city, so those workers are no longer counted as residents.

Meanwhile, the capital is relocating administrative departments to the Tongzhou district, in an attempt to ease traffic problems and thin the population density in the city center, said Yang Hongshan, professor of National Academy of Development and Strategy at Renmin University of China.

In 2010, the number of people older than age 65 in Beijing hit 1.71 million, accounting for 8.7 percent of the capital's population. By 2017, the elderly population was 2.38 million, or more than 10.5 percent of the population, the report said.

"The aging population is a normal transformation in society," said Dang Junwu, deputy director of the China Research Center on Aging. "We should pay attention to establishing systems to solve problems that aging might bring."

In 1991, Beijing's birthrate fell below 1 percent - ultralow by global standards - and hasn't climbed since 1991. It means that babies born in a given year represent less than 1 percent of the city's total population.

At the same time, the annual mortality rate was held to 0.5 percent for the past 20 years. Combined with a lower birthrate, a steady mortality rate results in an older population on average.

Beijing's high level of education is one of the reasons cited for its low fertility, said Ma Xiaohong, professor of the Beijing Population Research Institute.

The report said that the Beijing residents' education levels have improved since 2010. Nearly 40 percent of the capital's population has a college education or higher.

"Women with higher education prefer to delay childbirth and have other factors to consider," Ma said.

For example, in the workplace, women usually face more pressure when they get pregnant, she said.

Ma suggested that the capital should promote policies to provide high-quality maternity services for women and improve maternity leave regulations.

Beijing plans to cap its population at 23 million by 2020 and maintain that level for a long time to ensure there's enough water to go around.

The population in the six downtown districts - Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai and Shijingshan - declined for the first time in 2016. Beijing aims to cut the population in these districts by 15 percent by 2020 from the 2014 level.