Shanghai to double community senior care centers by 2022

SHANGHAI - Shanghai plans to more than double the number of its community service centers for senior citizens to at least 400 by 2022 to cope with a fast-aging population.

As one of the most aged cities in China, Shanghai currently has 180 government-funded community comprehensive service centers or sub-centers for seniors, which provide affordable day care, full-day care, health care, meals and other services, said the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau.

Such service centers will more than double in number by 2022 after covering all the sub-districts and towns in the urban and rural parts of Shanghai, according to a document issued by the municipal government that outlines a plan for expanding services for seniors in the city between 2019 and 2022.

Shanghai also plans to increase the number of beds in its senior care facilities to at least 175,000 by 2022, equivalent to no less than three percent of the city's registered population aged 60 and above, said the document. It added that the nursing beds will account for 60 percent of the total.

By the end of 2018, 5.03 million people, or 34.4 percent of the city's population that hold local household registration certificates, were aged 60 and above. Among the seniors, 16.2 percent are 80 years old and above.