People

The life expectancy of Shanghai residents has already reached the level of economically developed countries in the world. In 2002, the average life expectancy of the population stood at 79.52 years, 77.36for men and 81.65 years for women, up 6.67 and 6.87 years, respectively, from the 1978 figures. Today, the life expectancy of Shanghai residents is higher than the world's average and that of middle-income countries and reaches the level of major economically-developed countries in the world.

By the end of 1997, the city's urban green area totalled 7,848.96 hectares, including 2,483.65 hectares of public green area, 9.3 times more than that of 1978. The average per capita green area among the urban residents was 2.3 square metres, 1.83 square metres more than in 1978. About 17.8% of the city's urban area was covered by trees and grass, 9.6 percentage points higher than the 1978 figure. Meanwhile, the proportion of urban households using cooking gas had catapulted from 38.7% in 1978 to above 90% in 1997. Housing conditions have been improving continuously. During the 1978-1997 period, Shanghai had built apartment buildings and houses with a total floor space of 110 million square metres, with 67.8637 million square metres being completed during the 1991-1997 period. As a result, the average per capita living space among local urban residents expanded from 4.5 square metres in 1978 to 9 square metres in 1997.

And The living environment of the local residents keeps improving very fast rencent years. By the end of 1997, the average per capita green area among the urban residents was 9.16 square metres, 32.1% of the city was covered by trees and grass.