Due to constant inflow of people from other parts ofthe country, the population in Shanghai keeps growing.

When Shanghai was turned into a city, it only had a population of less than 100,000. By the time Shanghai was liberated in 1949, the figure stood at only 5.2 million. By the end of 2006, however, the city's permanent residents had grown to 13.681 million, or 1% of China's population. In 2006, an average 2,157 permanent residents lived on each square kilometer of the city. The population of long-term residents reached 18.15 million, including 4.67 million immigrants.

Natural Changes

Shanghai is the first provincial area in China to have reported a negative population growth rate. The city has registered a negative population growth rate for 14 con- secutive years since 1993. In 2006, the city's population of permanent residents saw a birth rate at 0.6%, mortality rate at 0.72% and natural growth rate at -0.12%.

Age Structure

The city has seen a rising population of senior citizens. A sample survey of 1% of the city population in 2006 reveals that 8.9% of the city's permanent residents, or 1.58 million, are aged 0 -- 14; 79.1%, or 14.08 million are aged 15 -- 64; 11.9%, or 2.12 million aged 65 and above. Compared with the fifth national census in 2000, the proportion of those aged 0 -- 14 in the city population dropped 3.4 percentage points, while that of those aged 65 and above rose by 0.5 percentage points.

Life Expectancy

The life expectancy of Shanghai's population has kept rising. In 2006, the average life expectancy stood at 80.97 years -- 78.67 for males and 82.29 for females, about the level in Western countries.

Education Level

The overall education level of Shanghai's population has been steadily improving. According to the sample

survey of the 1% of the city population in 2006, 18.1% of the city's population aged six and above had a collegeequivalent education and above, 6.7 percentage points more than in 2000 when the fifth national census was conducted. Those with senior high school education accounted for 24.8% of the local population, up 1 percentage point while residents with primary and junior middle school education accounted for 51.6%, a drop of 6.3 percentage points. In 2006, 99.9 percent of school-age children attended the nine-year obligatory education, 99 percent of junior middle school graduates entered senior high schools, and 81.7 percent of graduates of senior high school enrolled into colleges.