Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang (C) holds the first plenary session of the leading group of the sixth national population census, in Beijing, China, Dec. 18, 2009.[Xinhua]

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang stressed the importance of census Friday as the country started to prepare for the sixth national census next year.

He said population census was a "very important" comprehensive overview of national conditions and power, as it surveyed contents such as population, age, nationality, levels of education, profession and population migration.

"China needs a new census, because our economy has expanded rapidly and the social structure has changed continuously since the last census in 2000," he said at a meeting here.

He said China had a huge population. "Only when we have factual population statistics, can we take scientific measures in safeguarding security in energy and resources, food, arable land, economic and social stability," he said.

He also said the conditions of the nation's population closely concerned the government's work in economic restructuring and work-force optimization.

China conducts national population census every ten years. The sixth census will begin on Nov. 1, 2010.