Rugao City, referred to as "Ru" or "Gao" for short, is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province and is managed by Nantong City. It is a famous historical and cultural city in Jiangsu Province. It is located in the north wing of the Yangtze River Delta, at the junction of Nantong, Taizhou and Suzhou, facing Zhangjiagang City across the river in the south, Hai'an City in the north, Rudong County in the east, Tongzhou District of Nantong City in the southeast, Taixing City in the west and Jingjiang City in the southwest. The total area of the city is 1576.47 square kilometers, including 99 square kilometers of the water surface of the Yangtze River, and the total length of the Rugao Yangtze River shoreline is 48 kilometers, and 18.6 kilometers of the deep water shoreline of the Yangtze River can be directly used. According to the data of the seventh population census, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, the permanent resident population of Rugao was 1238448.

Rugao City was rated as one of the six largest longevity townships in the world by the International Society of Natural Medicine. Rugao has a registered residence population of about 1.42 million. As of January 1, 2021, the city has 68031 elderly people over 80 years old, 10150 elderly people over 90 years old, and 525 centenarians, including 16 people over 105 years old.

On June 17, 2019, Rugao was selected by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of the People's Republic of China as a pilot city to carry out standardized management of urban outdoor advertising facilities. On October 8, 2019, it was rated as one of the top 100 counties and cities with comprehensive strength in 2019, one of the top 100 counties and cities with green development in 2019, one of the top 100 counties and cities with new urbanization quality in 2019, and one of the top 100 counties with business environment in 2019. In December 2020, the Academy of Social Sciences released the National Top 100 County-level Economic Competitiveness, ranking Rugao 31st.

In 2020, Rugao will achieve a GDP of 130.522 billion yuan, with a comparable price increase of 5.3%. The added value of the primary industry was 7.771 billion yuan, up 2.6%; The added value of the secondary industry was 62.33 billion yuan, up 4.5%, of which 51.747 billion yuan, up 4.9%; The added value of the tertiary industry was 60.421 billion yuan, up 6.6%. The tertiary industrial structure is 5.9:47.8:46.3.

In October 2021, it was selected into the list of "Top 100 Smart Cities in China in 2021".