The number of Chinese in their 80s or older neared 19 million last year and would grow by an additional one million annually, a government report said.

The number of people aged 60 years and above, increased by 7.25 million to 167.14 million last year, or 12.5 percent of the Chinese population, the Office of China National Committee on Aging said Tuesday.

Further, the proportion of aged people in the population rose by half a percentage point to 12.5 percent, the largest annual increase in history, said Wu Yushao, deputy director of the office.

'That will be a huge challenge for our country,' Wu said. 'The economy, the retirement system and services for the elderly, are still too weak to handle the challenge.'

China will launch a 'Senior's Month' campaign in October to raise the public awareness of the aging society, Wu told Xinhua.

To deal with the aging problem, China's government agencies, including civil affairs, health, human resource and social security ministries, have worked in the areas of insurance and pension payments, medical services and building additional nursing homes.

The report revealed that by the end of 2009, the number of welfare institutions for old people nationwide has reached 38,060, sheltering more than two million people.

It also showed that in 2009, 235 million people joined the urban basic old-age insurance programme, up 7.3 percent from 2008.

And a new social endowment insurance programme targeting the elderly in rural areas was launched, covering 15 million people. Also, medical insurance programmes for the aged population in rural and urban areas have been introduced.

In addition, about 20,000 legal aid centres and over 40,000 schools for the elderly were built in 2009, the report said.