Abstract: At present,China is in the stage of deepening population aging,and how to effectively deal with the impact of population aging on urban innovation has become an urgent problem to be solved in the process of promoting the high-quality development of China's economy.This paper analyzes the theoretical mechanism of population aging affecting urban innovation,and empirically examines the impact of population aging on urban innovation using national census data and population sample survey data.It is found that the deepening of population aging significantly inhibits urban innovation capacity,and this effect is particularly obvious in the cities in central and western regions and in the cities with lower levels of economic development,mainly because population aging affects urban innovation through the technology inhibition effect and the factor cost effect.The conclusions of this paper have implications for the promotion of high-level urban innovation and the synergy of policies to actively deal with population aging.

Key words: population aging, urban innovation, national census data