China is the most populous country in the world, and China is also a multi-ethnic country with a total of 56 ethnic groups. So, what is the population in China? According to statistics, by the end of 2019, China’s total population will exceed 1.4 billion.
Historical Development Of The Chinese Population
Historically, China’s population has maintained a large proportion of the world’s population.
In 1850, China’s population was about 430 million, accounting for 34% of the world’s population. Due to war and other reasons, China’s population grew slowly from 1850 to 1950.
At the end of 1949, the population of mainland China was 5.4167 million, accounting for 22% of the world’s population. Since 1950, due to the development of production and the increase in life expectancy, the population of countries around the world has grown rapidly.
By the end of 1990, China’s population had reached 1.143333 billion people, but its proportion in the world’s population has remained at about 22%.
As early as 1962, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued instructions to seriously promote family planning. In the 1990s, with the continuous strengthening of family planning work, China’s fertility rate fell below the replacement level. Due to the demographic structure, China’s total population continues to grow, but its proportion in the world has been decreasing year by year, and its ageing is getting deeper.
Total population in Mainland China at the end of 2018: 1.39 billion (excluding Hong Kong, Macau Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province, and overseas Chinese)
Hong Kong, China total population in 2018: 7.43 million.
Macau’s total population in 2018: 66,700 people.
Taiwan’s total population in 2018: approximately 23.58 million.
On January 17, 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics released data showing that by the end of 2019, the total population of mainland China (including 31 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and the People’s Liberation Army active duty soldiers, excluding Hong Kong, Macau Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province, and overseas Chinese Number of people) 1.4 billion people, an increase of 4.67 million over the end of the previous year.
Population Distribution in China
At the sixth census in 2010, the Cenozoic migrant population had already exceeded half of the migrant population, totaling 118 million. National floating population monitoring data show that the average age of migrants in 2012 was about 28, and more than half of working-age migrants were born after 1980.
At the same time, the floating population management and service system is seriously lagging behind and needs to be improved. The huge migrant population puts tremendous pressure on urban infrastructure and public services.
Migrants’ employment, children’s education, health care, social security, and family planning rights are not effectively guaranteed, which seriously restricts the orderly flow and reasonable distribution of the population, and faces difficulties in coordinating urban and rural development and regional coordination.
In the face of complex population issues, the Chinese government, proceeding from the strategic height of building a well-off society and building a harmonious socialist society, adheres to the people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable scientific outlook on development, constantly improves population policies and programs, and comprehensively solves the overall development of employment Population issues, while stabilizing the low fertility level, improve the quality of the population, improve the structure of the population, guide the rational distribution of the population, and promote the coordinated and sustainable development of the population, economy, society, resources and environment.
According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics in 2012, the population living in urban areas was 71.182 million, accounting for 52.57%; the population living in rural areas was 642,222, accounting for 47.42%.
Chinese National Composition
The Han nationality is China’s main ethnic group, accounting for 91.51% of the total population. There are 55 other ethnic groups, accounting for 8.49%. However, according to a sample of 2005, only 88% of the newborns are Han, indicating that the proportion of the Han population will be only 88% when the newborns grow up.
The minority population grew faster than the Han nationality, accounting for 5.2% of the national population in 1953, 8.04% in 1990, 8.41% in 2000, and 9.44% in 2005.
In the 2005 national sample census, compared with the fifth national census, the proportion of ethnic minorities in newborns was 14%, and the Han population accounted for 86%, which means that in the future, ethnic minorities will account for 14% of the Chinese population. The proportion of Han people will drop to 86%.
The population of the Han nationality in the 2010 census was 12,25932641, accounting for 91.51%; the population of various ethnic minorities was 113,792,211, accounting for 8.49%. Compared with the fifth national census in 2000, the Han population increased by 66,537,177, an increase of 5.74%; the population of various ethnic minorities increased by 7,362,627, an increase of 6.92%.