BEIJING - The permanent population of China's capital of Beijing was 21.7 million by the end of 2015, close to the whole of Australia, despite it being the slowest growth in years, according to official data.

Defined as people who have lived in the city for six months or more, the permanent population in Beijing recorded a yearly growth of 0.9 percent in 2015, down from the growth of 2.9 percent in 2011, according to a report released by the Beijing Statistics Bureau and the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

The city is home to 8.2 million non-locals, about 38 percent, which is also noticeably slower as the city continues to move out "non-capital functions," according to the report.

Beijing has sought to address its "urban diseases," such as traffic congestion and air pollution, by curbing its population growth and transferring facilities to nearby regions.

It is also building a second administrative center in Tongzhou, about 40 minutes drive from the city center, hoping to relocate about 400,000 residents from the city center to the suburban district.

The dwindling non-local influx, however, has reduced the city's work-age population. People between 15 and 64 accounted for 79.6 percent of the city's permanent population by the end of 2015, down from 81.9 percent in 2011, the report said. Enditem