Tibet's population has more than doubled in the past half century to reach 2.93 million by the end of 2010, the regional government said Tuesday.

The population of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region has been growing at a rate of 1.1 percent per year from 2005 to 2010, much higher than the national average, said a spokesman of Tibet's family planning commission.

Tibet is China's least-populated provincial-level region. The population was only 1.23 million in 1959.

Meanwhile, Tibet's average life expectancy has risen from 35.5 years to 67 years over the past five decades, mainly due to rising health care standards and an improving social security system, the spokesman said.

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