When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, the
population numbered 541.67 million. Owing to China's stable
society, rapid development of production, improvement in medical
and health conditions, insufficient awareness of the importance of
population growth control and shortage of experience, the
population grew rapidly, reaching 806.71 million in 1969. Since the
1970s, China has implemented a policy of family planning to control
population growth which brought about the start of a decline in the
birth rate. By 2004, the annual rate of population growth had
decreased to 12.29 per thousand. Now China's population
reproduction picture has basically been turned around into one
characterized by low rates of birth, death and increase.
In line with the requirements of the Outline of National
Economic and Social Development during the Tenth Five-Year Plan
period, adopted at the Fourth Session of the Ninth NPC in March
2001, in the Tenth Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005) the goal is
for the average annual natural increase in China's population not
to exceed nine per thousand, and for the population by 2005 to be
less than 1.33 billion. By 2010 the population of China is expected
not to exceed 1.4 billion.
