The proportion of China's population in most regions inhabited by ethnic minority groups increased over the last decade, according to data of the sixth national census released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Friday.

By Nov. 1 last year, about 3 million people were living in Tibet, accounting for 0.22 percent of the total population on the Chinese mainland. The proportion was 0.01 percentage points higher than that in 2000 when China conducted its fifth national census.

While over 21.81 million residents, or 1.63 percent of the nation's total population, were living in Xinjiang by Nov. 1 last year, up 0.11 percentage points from 2000.

The proportions of people living in Qinghai and Ningxia respectively increased 0.01 and 0.03 percentage points from a decade ago.

Among other provinces or regions, Guangdong replaced Henan as China's most populous province with 104.3 million people, or 7.79 percent of the total population on the Chinese mainland.

Shandong Province ranked second in China's population charts while Henan retreated to the third, with 95.79 and 94.02 million people, respectively.