Hong Kong's older persons up 36.4 pct in decade

HONG KONG - The ageing trend in the population continued as China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region registered 1.16 million older persons in 2016, up 36.4 percent from 2006, official statistics showed.

The proportion of older persons in the total population rose from 12.4 percent in 2006 to 15.9 percent in 2016, according to a report, 2016 Population By-census Thematic Report: Older Persons, published by the Census and Statistics Department on Friday.

Older persons in this report refer to people aged 65 and over.

Among older persons in 2016, 53 percent were aged 65 to 74, 17.7 percent were aged 75 to 79 and 29.3 percent were aged 80 and over. The number of persons aged 80 and over rose substantially by 66.7 percent over the past decade.

With the increasing level of educational attainment and the improving health conditions of older persons, the number of working older persons more than doubled over the past ten years, from 59,256 in 2006 to 125,177 in 2016.