Average life expectancy of Chinese citizens reaches 79.25 years in 2025

Beijing (ANTARA) — The average life expectancy of Chinese citizens reached 79.25 years in 2025, up 1.32 years from 2020. Lei Haichao, head of the National Health Commission of China, said on Saturday 7 March that the past five years have been a historic period of progress for China’s health-care sector, with improvements evident across a range of areas. He cited policies prioritising services at the grass-roots level as having driven a steady rise in visits to primary health-care institutions, which handled 52.6 percent of all diagnoses and medical care nationwide in 2025, and a growing number of health workers serving communities in urban and rural areas. Currently, more than 90 percent of the population can reach the nearest health-care facility within a 15-minute walk. By the end of 2025, China had more than 1.1 million medical and health-care institutions and more than 16 million health workers. This expansion of health-care resources has helped improve the equity and accessibility of basic medical services for 1.4 billion people in the country, Lei said. Lei stated that efforts would focus on strengthening primary health-care services and improving pediatrics, mental health, general practice, rehabilitation nursing, and other services. Mobile medical teams, telemedicine, and online consultations will continue to be used to broaden access to health-care services. Lei pledged to deepen reform of the health-care system and strengthen public health security capacity. China plans to lift its average life expectancy to around 80 years through various measures planned in the 15th Five-Year Plan period from 2026 to 2030.