Recent data from the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Civil Affairs shows that the province's elderly population aged 60 and above reached 9.14 million by the end of 2025, accounting for 23.22% of the permanent residents, an increase of 270,000 compared to the previous year.
In response to the growing aging challenge, Shaanxi is adopting a dual-drive strategy of institutional innovation and industrial coordination to enhance seniors' sense of fulfillment, happiness, and security. In 2025, the provincial party committee and government issued a series of documents to promote high-quality civil affairs development and strengthen elderly sports activities. The provincial aging committee expanded to 45 member units, introducing 23 supporting measures for aging work, implementation opinions on elderly education development, and innovative special plans such as the "five-bed linkage" medical-nursing integration, financial support for the silver economy, and 10 measures for elderly care service consumption. This has formed a provincial-municipal coordinated, multi-department collaborative aging governance structure.
The social security net for the elderly is becoming increasingly robust. The province's basic pension insurance coverage reached 32.0338 million people, with coordinated expansion of enterprise annuities, personal pensions, and commercial pension finance. The minimum basic pension for urban and rural residents was raised to 198 yuan per month. Basic medical insurance coverage remained stable at around 95%. As a national pilot city for long-term care insurance, Hanzhong City had 413,900 participants, with over 4,000 elderly individuals already benefiting. Subsidies for low-income households, special hardship allowances, and old-age allowances were precisely distributed, with 3.2 billion yuan in old-age subsidies disbursed, benefiting over 4.14 million seniors.
The supply of urban and rural elderly care services has expanded and improved. The province has established 20,000 home-based care beds and 4,929 community dining stations, with coverage of street (township) regional elderly care service centers reaching 68%. Institutional care beds totaled 135,000, with nursing-type beds accounting for over 60%. The proportion of secondary-level and above public general hospitals with geriatric departments reached 94.86%, and 907 cooperation agreements were signed between medical and elderly care institutions. Psychological care service points achieved full coverage at the county level.
The silver economy continues to heat up. Nine categories of age-friendly products were included in the consumer goods trade-in program, driving nearly 150 million yuan in consumption. Sixteen county-level pilot areas for elderly tourism and residence were established, with 10 high-quality silver travel routes released. Sixty-one special silver tourism trains operated, serving over 50,000 elderly tourists. The third Xi'an International Silver Industry Expo signed more than 30 projects, with intended investment of nearly 3.9 billion yuan. Additionally, Shaanxi expanded its international vision by organizing a delegation to the Osaka World Expo in Japan for silver economy exchanges, signing nine cooperation agreements.
Furthermore, 13,000 retired medical workers and teachers in Shaanxi are active on the front lines of volunteer services. Five projects, including the "Sanqin Silver Age Initiative" and "Silver Teacher Classroom Education Support," were selected as nationally important brands for the "Silver Age Action" program, highlighting the value of elderly contributions.
"We will continue to improve the three-tier elderly care service network, deepen the integration of medical and health care, and enable more seniors to enjoy support, medical care, meaningful activities, happiness, learning, and security," a spokesperson from the provincial civil affairs department stated.