Health professionals care to senior citizens at an elderly care center in Taocheng District in Hengshui, Hebei Province, on May 5, 2019. (Xinhua/Mu Yu)

NHC says 180 mln elderly Chinese citizens are suffering from chronic diseases, while the country's healthy life expectancy is only 68.7

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- China has over 180 million elderly citizens that suffer from chronic diseases, of whom 75 percent suffer from more than one, says the National Health Commission (NHC).

China's average life expectancy was 77 in 2018, but its healthy life expectancy was just 68.7 years, meaning people are suffering from diseases for more than eight years of their life, according to Wang Haidong, director of NHC's Department of Ageing and Health.

By the end of 2018, China had about 249 million people aged 60 and above, with 167 million of those aged 65 and above, accounting for 17.9 percent and 11.9 percent of the total population, respectively.