Ma Jiantang

Commissioner, National Bureau of Statistics of China

April 28, 2011

China conducted the 6th national population census with zero hour of November 1, 2010 as the reference time. Under the correct leadership of the Central Committee of CPC and the State Council, with the strong support of relevant ministries and local governments and the close cooperation from the media, through the painstaking efforts of about 10 million census workers and the active participation of 1.3 billion people of all nationalities, the field enumeration, check and post-enumeration survey of the census has been successfully completed, and data of high quality were obtained. At this press conference, we are to release major figures through advance tabulation.

I. Total Population

Total population as was enumerated through the census was 1,339,724,852 persons, an increase of 73.90 million persons or 5.84 percent over the 10 years since the 2000 census, or an annual growth of 0.57 percent. This was 0.5 percentage points lower than the annual growth of 1.07 percent registered between 1990 and 2000, demonstrating a steady low fertility in the population growth of China over the past decade.

II. Size of Family Households

In the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, there were 401.52 million family households with a population of 1244.61 million persons. The average size of family households was 3.10 persons, or 0.34 persons less as compared with the 3.44 persons in the 2000 population census. The shrinking of household size was caused by the continued decline of fertility, the increase of population migration and the independent living arrangement of young couples after marriage.

III. Sex Composition

Of the population enumerated in census, males accounted for 51.27 percent, while females accounted for 48.73 percent. The sex ratio declined from 106.74 in 2000 census to the current 105.20 (population of females as 100).

IV. Age Composition

Data from the census showed that population in the age group of 0-14 accounted for 16.60 percent of the total population, down by 6.29 percentage points as compared with 2000 population census; population in the age group of 60 and over accounted for 13.26 percent, up by 2.93 percentage points, of which population in the age group of 65 and over accounted for 8.87 percent, up by 1.91percentage points as compared with the 2000 population census. The change in the age composition of population is a reflection of great improvement in the standard of living and medical and health undertakings along with the fast economic and social development, the continued low level of fertility and the accelerated process of population aging.

V. Composition of Nationalities

Of the population enumerated, 91.51 percent were of Han nationality, down by 0.08 percentage points from the 91.59 percent in 2000 population census, and 8.49 percent were of various national minorities, up by 0.08 percentage points from the 8.41 percent in 2000 census. The average annual growth of minority population over the past 10 years was 0.67 percent, or 0.11 percentage points higher than the annual growth of population of Han nationality.

VI. Composition of Educational Attainment

Compared with the 2000 population census, following changes took place in the number of people with various educational attainments of every 100,000 people: number of people with university education increased from 3611 to 8930; number of people with senior secondary education increased from 11146 to 14032; number of people with junior secondary education increased from 33961 to 38788; and number of people with primary education decreased from 35701 to 26779.

The illiterate rate (i.e. proportion of population over 15 years of age who can not read in the total population) was 4.08 percent, a decline of 2.64 percentage points from the 6.72 percent in 2000 census.

Change in the educational attainment and the illiterate rate reflected the positive achievements made over the past decade in promoting 9-year compulsory education, in developing higher education and in eliminating young and mid-age illiterate population.

VII. Urban and Rural Population

Of the population enumerated, 665.57 million were urban residents, accounting for 49.68 percent; and 674.15 million were rural residents, accounting for 50.32 percent. Compared with the 2000 population census, the share of urban residents increased by 13.46 percentage points, demonstrating a higher level of urbanization as a result of economic and social development since 2000.

VIII. Geographic Distribution

Of the population enumerated, the resident population of the eastern region accounted for 37.98 percent of the total population of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, that of the central region accounted for 26.76 percent, that of the western region accounted for 27.04 percent, and that of the northeastern region accounted for 8.22 percent.

Compared with 2000 population census, the share of population in the eastern region rose by 2.41 percentage points, while the share of all other regions declined. The western region registered the largest drop of 1.11 percentage points, followed by the central region of 1.08 percentage points, and the northeastern region of 0.22 percentage points.

Analyzed by the size of resident population, the top 5 provinces are Guangdong, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan and Jiangsu, while the raking from the 2000 census was Henan, Shandong, Guangdong, Sichuan and Jiangsu.

IX. Migration of Population

Of the population enumerated in the census, 261.39 million persons lived in places other than the towns (townships or streets) of their household registration where they had left for over 6 months. Of this total, 39.96 million were persons with their current residence different from the place of their household registration in the same city, and the remaining were 221.43 million persons. Compared with the 2000 population census, population living in places other than the towns (townships or streets) of their household registration where they had left for over 6 months increased by 117.0 million persons, or up by 81.03 percent, of which the number of migrants other than those with current residence different from the place of their household registration in the same city increased by 100.36 million, or up by 82.89 percent. The rapid shift of rural labour force to non-agricultural activities and fast economic development contributed to the growing size of population migration.

After field enumeration, a total of 402 enumeration blocks were randomly selected to conduct post-enumeration survey to compare with the records of census enumeration, which resulted in a population undercount rate of 0.12 percent.

Through the population census, we have collected large volume of basic data concerning the size, quality, composition and distribution of population. As a wealth of information, they are of great value in formulating policies on economic and social development during the “12th five-year development programme” period. We are now engaged in the detailed tabulation and analysis of census data, and will release more information step by step when they become available.