Census: Population hits 1.37b

Nearly half live in urban areas and 13 percent are over 60

BEIJING - As China's population hits 1.37 billion people, challenges, including an ageing society and labor crunches, may prompt the authorities to fine-tune the 30-year-old family planning policy.

The population increased slightly by 73.9 million people in the past decade, due largely to the policy limiting most urban couples to just one child, according to preliminary results from the sixth national census released on Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).