BEIJING - The number of Beijing's permanent residents, holders of Beijing residence certificates, grew marginally by 0.1 percent to 21.7 million in 2016, said the city statistics bureau Sunday.

Beijing's registered urban population stood at 18.8 million last year, over 86 percent of the total permanent population, according to Pang Jiangqian, deputy head of the bureau.

Residents aged between 15 and 59 constituted 73.7 percent of the total, those aged 14 and under 10.3 percent and the over-60s accounted for 16 percent.

Beijing aims to cap its population at 23 million by 2020, and lower the population of permanent residents in the city proper by 15 percent from that in 2014.