BEIJING - Average life expectancy, a key gauge of the health level of a country's residents, reached 78.2 years in China in 2021, statistics released by the National Health Commission on Tuesday showed. The figure is up from 77.93 years in 2020.

China saw its maternal mortality rate fall in 2021, dropping from 16.9 per 100,000 in 2020 to 16.1 per 100,000, the commission said in its annual report on the country's health development.

China's infant mortality rate decreased from 5.4 per 1,000 in 2020 to 5 per 1,000 last year, the commission said.

The mortality rates of pregnant women, infants and children under 5 years of age in China all dropped to their lowest levels in history in 2021, said Song Li, director of the maternal and child health department of the NHC.