Shanghai is expecting 170,000 babies this year, helping to push the city's population to more than 19 million.

This year's permanent population in Shanghai will increase by 0.3 percent, or 220,000, from 18.88 million last year, the Shanghai Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission said yesterday. In addition to the births, about 50,000 children and adults are expected to join the city's permanent population.

Last year, the city's population grew a year-on-year 0.27 percent, said the Shanghai Statistics Bureau.

In 2006, the annual birth rate of the permanent population was 0.747 percent, and 134,201 babies were born. In 2007 this climbed to 0.907 percent with 166,600 births.

Last year, the birth rate was 0.889 percent, with around the same number of babies born as in 2007. The city's population has grown by around 300,000 every year for the past 17 years.

(Shanghai Daily February 18, 2009)