China's population had grown to 1.3397 billion by 2010, according to census figures released on Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The population figure is 73.9 million more than that of 2000, when China did its fifth census, according to figures released by the bureau.

The figure represents an annual average population growth of 0.57 percent over the past decade (2000-2010), indicating a slow population increase, said the NBS.

The census results also showed that China, the world's second-biggest economy after the United States, is rapidly urbanising, with nearly half the population -- 49.7 percent -- living in urban areas.

In 2000, 36.09 percent of Chinese lived in cities, although that census used a different counting method.