Objective To explore the health status and the health care demands in senior inhabitants from the communities of Taiyanggong and Xiangheyuan in Beijing in order to provide information for better services. Methods The community residents who were over 60 years old were surveyed by our self-designed questionnaires when they received free physical examination. Results Most of the participants had moderate self-rated health status (76.5%), and few had poor self-rated health status(7.2%). The prevalence of chronic diseases was 74.6%, while participants with two or more chronic diseases accounted for 38.0%. The elderly had the following health-care demands: health examination (72.4%), health guidance (45.5%), home-visit care (35.2%) and home hospitalization service (21.2%). Those at different ages or with different educational background had different health care demands. Conclusion Chronic disease is the major problem in the two communities. We should strengthen the prevention and control of chronic diseases in the future. The key to meet different demands of the elderly is to organize and provide a demand-oriented, diversified and multi-leveled health service.