The ageing population is posing a grave challenge to southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to a report from the Sichuan Provincial Statistics Bureau.

The number of people aged 65 or above rose steadily in the province from 2000 to 2005, said the Sichuan Provincial Population and Economic Development Study, written by the bureau's department of population and social science. In the five years, there was an increase of 841,000 people aged 65 or more, the report said.

At the end of last year, the number of residents in that category was 7.07 million, up 1.05 percentage points on the year 2000.

In advanced countries, the population usually starts ageing in a similar fashion when its per capita annual gross domestic product (GDP) reaches US$10,000.

But last year, the per capita annual GDP in Sichuan was only US$960.

Chen Zhi, chief of the department of population and social science, said the ageing population had an adverse effect on Sichuan, "which was like a man getting old before he was rich."

Old people aged 65 or above accounted for 8.61 percent of the permanent residents in Sichuan last year, while in the whole country they accounted for only 7.69 percent of the permanent population, added Chen.

One of three writers of the report, he said it was written on the basis of a spot check of 1 percent of Sichuan's 87.5 million people last year.

Sichuan is less developed in China than many other areas in terms of the income of its people.

According to the Sichuan Provincial Statistics Bureau, the average disposable yearly income of each urban resident was 8,386 yuan (US$1,062) last year, 2,107 yuan (US$267) less than the national average in 2005.

The average yearly net income per rural resident was 2,803 yuan (US$355), 452 yuan (US$57) less than the 2005 national average.

The population is said to be ageing too early as Sichuan has yet to set up a sound social insurance system for old people, build more old people's homes and ensure adequate medical facilities, Chen said.

Creation of more jobs is another tough issue facing the province, according to the report.

From 2006 to 2010, the number of work-age people is expected to rise by around 1 million each year, while the province can only offer between 200,000 and 300,000 jobs a year.

Due to rapid urbanization, many surplus rural workers have found their way to the cities.

Of Sichuan's 47.02 million work-age people who are actually employed, 34.731 million are in the countryside. At least 10 million of them will have to be diverted to the non-agricultural sector, the report said.

To cope with all these problems, the report called for the establishment of a sound social insurance system for senior citizens and an improvement in educational levels.

At the end of last year, only 2.79 million people in Sichuan had received a college education, while 60.38 million people had received an education at the primary and junior high school levels, Chen said.

(China Daily October 12, 2006)