The life expectancy of Chinese people has risen to 77.93 years, and the main health indicators are in the forefront among upper-middle-income countries, Mao Qunan, director of the Department of Planning of the National Health Commission, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

This year marks the third year of implementation of the country's Healthy China initiative, and China has made remarkable progress in the current stage.

National databases of experts and resources have been established to promote health knowledge, rational diet, fitness programs and psychological health. The health literacy level of Chinese citizens has improved to 25.4 percent. Major diseases, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, cancers and diabetes, have been effectively contained. Premature mortality from major chronic diseases is now below the global average, said Mao.

More people have been involved in health activities online and offline, which has laid a social foundation for epidemic prevention and control.

Promotion of national fitness

National fitness is one of the 15 actions of the Healthy China initiative. In 2020, 37.2 percent of the population regularly took part in physical exercise, 3.3 percentage points higher than that in 2014. The passing rate of the national physical fitness standards has reached 90.4 percent in 2022.

More exercise facilities and fields have been built. As of the end of 2021, the national per capita exercise area reached 2.41 square meters, Gao Yuanyi, deputy director of the Mass Sports Department of The General Administration of Sport of China (GASC), told the press conference.

This year more than 2,100 stadiums have been subsidized by GASC and the Ministry of Finance, covering more than 1,300 county-level administrative areas in more than 300 cities across China, benefiting about 200 million people, Gao added. 

Better environmental hygiene

The improvement in environmental hygiene has also helped improve the health of people in China.

In the past decade, 277 national health cities and 3,269 national health counties have been established, Mao noted. 

Environmental hygiene indicators, such as the rate of harmless treatment of urban household garbage, the proportion of days with average good air quality and the penetration rate of rural tap water, have also been greatly improved.