BEIJING -?The number of people living in China's cities for the first time exceeded those living in the country's rural areas as of the end of 2011, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

The number of urban dwellers increased by 21 million to hit 690.79 million as of the end of 2011, accounting for 51.27 percent of the country's total population, the NBS said.

Meanwhile, the rural population fell by 14.56 million to 656.56 million as of the end of 2011, the NBS noted.

The nation's total population increased by 6.44 million over the past year to 1.34 billion, it said.

The number of people between the ages of 15 and 64 stood at about 1 billion, or 74.4 percent of the nation's total. The amount was down 0.1 percentage points from that of the previous year, the NBS said.