A robot dog interacts with an elderly woman through voice function in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Feb 24. [Photo/VCG]

By the end of 2024, Zhejiang's permanent population had reached 66.7 million, an increase of 430,000 from the previous year, according to data released by the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics on March 1.

Urbanization continued to progress, with urban residents accounting for 75.5 percent of the total population, an increase of 1.3 percentage points from 2023. The province recorded 50.33 million urban residents and 16.37 million rural residents by the end of 2024.

The population aged 0 to 15 accounted for 13.1 percent of the total, a slight decrease of 0.3 percentage points from the previous year. The working-age population, defined as those aged 16 to 59, made up 64.5 percent, down 0.6 percentage points. Meanwhile, the population aged 60 and above increased to 22.4 percent, up 0.9 percentage points.

Among Zhejiang's cities, Hangzhou remained the most populous, with 12.624 million residents, followed by Wenzhou at 9.852 million and Ningbo at 9.777 million. Jinhua had 7.209 million residents, Taizhou 6.729 million, Jiaxing 5.608 million, Shaoxing 5.429 million, Huzhou 3.465 million, Lishui 2.532 million, Quzhou 2.299 million, and Zhoushan 1.176 million.