Beijing, July 22 (IANS): Beijing will ensure that its population is within 21.8 million by the end of this year, an official said.

Beijing mayor Wang Anshun said that aggressive measures will be taken to cure the "big city disease".

He was speaking at a meeting analyzing Beijing's economic situations in the first half of this year, the People's Daily reported.

Beijing is facing severe resource and environment pressures caused by its fast-growing population. By the end of 2014, the permanent resident population of Beijing was 21.5 million, of which 12.8 million were living in the six urban districts, the media report said.

According to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region's Coordinated Development Planning Outline, the population of Beijing should be within 23 million by 2020.

"Beijing will take measures to prevent new population gathering, making sure the permanent resident population is within 21.8 million by the end of this year," said Wang.