Measures for Fifth National Population Census

Chapter 1 General Principles

Article 1 The State Council has decided to carry out the fifth national population census in 2000 in order to work out scientifically the national economic and social development strategy and program, to formulate the population policy, to make unified arrangement for the material and cultural life of the people and to realize the coordinated development between the population and natural resources and environment. In accordance with the Law of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, the measures hereby are formulated.

Article 2 The population census will be conducted under the leadership of the State Council and the local people’s governments at various levels.

Leading groups and their offices for population census will be set up by the State Council, the people’s governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, the people’s governments of the cities with districts under their jurisdiction, the autonomous prefectures and the administrative division of prefectures, counties, autonomous counties, the cities without districts under their jurisdiction and the districts under jurisdiction of cities. Population census offices will be set up by the townships, towns and street communities. Population census groups will be set up by villagers’ committees and residents’ committees. They will be responsible for leading the population census and organizing its implementation.

Article 3 The reference time for the fifth national population census will be zero hours on November 1, 2000.

Article 4 The funds needed for the population census will be jointly financed by the central and local governments while the main parts will be borne by the local governments. The funds will be spent under the principle of strict frugality while high quality of the work for the census must be ensured.

Article 5 The leading organs of population census under the people’s governments at various levels will be responsible for the quality of data obtained in the population census and for supervising the working offices of the population census in the quality control, check up and acceptance of the quality of the work.

Chapter 2 Objects of Population Census and Principle of Enumeration

Chapter 6 The objects of the population census are persons (that is, natural persons and hereinafter also) who hold the nationality of, and permanent residing place in the People’s Republic of China.

Chapter 7 In the population census, the principle of enumeration of permanent residents is followed. Everyone must be enumerated in his or her permanent residing place and everyone can be enumerated in one place only.

The following persons should be enumerated in their own townships, towns and street communities:

　　(1) Those who reside in the townships, towns and street communities and have had their permanent household registered there.
(2) Those who have resided in the townships, towns and street communities for more than half a year but the places of their permanent household registration are elsewhere.
(3) Those who have resided in the townships, towns and street communities for less than half a year but have been away from the place of their permanent household registration for more than half a year.
(4) Those who live in the townships, towns and street communities during the population census but the places of their household registration have not yet settled.
(5) Those who used to live in the townships, towns and street communities but are working or studying abroad during the census and have no permanent household registration for the time being.

Those who have their permanent household registration in the townships, towns and street communities but have been away from there for more than half a year will be counted only into the number of people in the places of their household registration but will not be counted into the number of permanent residents there.

Article 8 The household will be taken as the unit for population census. The household is classified into family household and non-family household.

A family household is the household where the members live together in one place with the family relationship as the main link between them. The person who lives alone is also regarded as a family household.

A non-family household is the household where the members have no family relationship between them but live together in the collective dormitory of a unit or in other places.

Article 9 There are two different forms, the long one and the short one, to be filled in the population census. The forms will be designed by the office of the leading group of the fifth national population census under the State Council (hereinafter called State Council Office for Population Census) The long form will be filled by 10 percent of the households according to the measures stipulated by the State. The short form will be filled by the rest of the households.

Article 10 The household where people die during the period from November 1, 1989 to October 31, 2000 will be enumerated in the population census and the Investigation Form of Dead Population will be filled.

The people who die during the period from zero hours November 1, 2000 up to the enumeration time of the census will also be enumerated in the census but they will not be entered into the Investigation Form of Dead Population. The births which take place in this period will not be enumerated in the census. The people who move from one place to other place in this period must be enumerated in their original permanent residing places.

Article 11 The population census of the servicemen of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) as well as PLA’s civilian cadres, workers and staff, retired people under the PLA’s administration will be done under the unified leadership by the PLA leading organs.

The population census of workers and staff who provide services for PLA but are not enlisted in PLA as well as their relatives and maids will be done by PLA organs if they live in the courtyards of the barracks. Their forms after being filled in the census will be turned over to the population census organs appointed by the local people’s governments. If they live outside the courtyards of barracks, their population census will be done by local organs of the population census.

The population census of the people who are not PLA servicemen but live in welfare organizations, protective enterprises, schools for children, kindergartens and other units affiliated to PLA and the civilian cadres and workers and staff of these units will be done by these units. The forms after being filled will be turned over to the population census organs appointed by the local people’s governments. The population census of those who live outside these units will be done by local population census organs.

Article 12 The population census of the units of the Chinese People’s Armed Police will be conducted by the public security organs stationed in local counties and cities. The census forms after being filled will be turned over to the population census offices of the local counties and cities.

Article 13 The population census of the personnel now working in Chinese embassies, consulates and other units stationed abroad as well as Chinese experts, workers, staff and other personnel who have been sent to work abroad, Chinese students studying abroad (including on public expense and self-paying), trainees and students for advanced study will be done by their family or non-family households for enumeration before their going abroad .

Article 14 The population census of those who are serving sentences in prisons or under labor education will be done by local public security organs or prison authorities. Their forms after being filled will be turned over to the population census offices of local counties and cities.

Chapter 3 Publicity and Preparatory Work for Population Census

Article 15 Before the population census starts, the publicity departments at various levels and news media should play an active role and do a good job in the publicity of the population census by mobilizing the mass of the people to take part in the census.

Article 16 The enumeration in the population census and the collection and tabulation of the data obtained should be done according to the district division of the census. In the rural areas, the district under the jurisdiction of one villagers’ committee should be taken as the basic unit of the census. In the cities and towns, .the district under the jurisdiction of one residents’ committee should be taken as the basic unit. Every basic unit should be divided into some small investigation areas. Small investigation areas should be of the size for a single census worker to be able to fulfill the whole task in the area. A census worker will cover all the resident households in the area with no repetition or omission.

Article 17 Under the unified leadership of the population census organs at various levels,

The public security organs should rectify the household registration in accordance with the Rules and Regulations for Household Registration of the People’s Republic of China and the other State stipulations related to the household registration control. In the rectification, the accurate numbers of permanent residents and temporary residents and the people on moving should be made clear. The related data should be sent to the population census offices of the townships, towns and street communities.

Article 18 Before the population enumeration starts, the census workers and the census guides should make a preliminary investigation of the population status in their small investigation areas, define the sphere of work and responsibility in the census enumeration, make a sketch map of the area and compile a booklet of the name list of the heads of every household.

Chapter 4   Enumeration in Population Census and Check up of Results

Article 19 The on-the-spot enumeration of the population census should start from November 1, 2000 and end before November 10.

Article 20 The census worker will enter into each household for investigation and inquiry to fill the form on the spot as the method of enumeration for population census. The census worker should make clear the real situation through inquiry about each household and each person one by one and fill the form item by item so that there will be no repetition nor omission to ensure the complete accuracy.

After finishing the investigation of a household, the census worker should declare the contents filled in the blanks of the form to the household reporter for check up.

Article 21 It is the obligation of every citizen to take an active part in the population census by reporting the real facts in the items of the census. The household reporter should answer the questions of the census worker about the contents of the census honestly. No falsified reports, cover up of facts, refusal to answer questions of the census are allowed.

Article 22 Workers of governments at various levels should mobilize and support the mass of people to report honestly the facts in the population census and they are not allowed to incite, instigate or compel people not to report honestly the facts or to falsify or alter contents in the census forms and tabulation of the data. They are not allowed to make vindictive attacks on people who report honestly the facts or to interfere with the population census under any pretext in any form.

Article 23 The materials learnt from the census about any individuals are not allowed to be used as the basis for administrative actions, citation or penalty.

Article 24 The organs and workers of the population census at various levels should keep the reports disclosed by the households in the enumeration as secrets and must not provide or divulge the reports to any units or individuals outside the population census organs. It is strictly forbidden to openly disclose the enumeration materials learnt from the census about any individuals or families

Article 25 The forms filled in the census can be used only for data treatment and tabulation. The population census organs must keep the forms in good shape and safety. It is not allowed for any units or individuals to look over these forms under any pretext.

Article 26 After the enumeration in the census ends, the census guides should organize the census workers to check up all the results according to the stipulated methods. The errors found in the check up must be corrected after verifying that they are errors

The check up must be completed before November 15, 2000.

Article 27 After completion of the check up, a sample accounting for 0.15 per thousand of the national population will be taken for conducting post-census quality check up. The post-census sampled quality check up will be organized by the State Council Population Census Office. The personnel taking part in the post-census sampled quality check up should not include anybody who had taken part in the population census in his or her original districts of census. The sampled quality check up should be completed before November 30, 2000. The results of the post-census sampled quality check up will be used only as the basis for appraisal of the enumeration in the population census and will not be used for the appraisal of the quality of work of population census in any locality.

Chapter 5 Selection and Training of Population Census Workers

Article 28 The work for enumeration will be done by population census workers. Their work will be under the guidance and examined by the census guides. The local cadres and activists on the grassroots level should help the census workers in the enumeration work.

The population census workers and their guides should be selected and posted by the local people’s governments of the counties and cities. They can be selected from cadres working in the local government or Party offices, public enterprises and undertakings, villagers’ or residents’ committees, school teachers, college or high vocational school students and retired personnel, or recruited as temporary workers from the jobless people. In rural areas, the middle and primary school teachers can be the main force in the work.

In principle, one population census worker should be posted to one small investigation area. One population census guide should be posted to one census district.

Article 29 The population census workers and guides should be those who have finished junior middle school education and are enthusiastic for social welfare undertakings, in good health and with high sense of responsibility so as to be competent for the task of population census.

Article 30 All units should select those with good conditions to be the population census workers and guides in accordance with the stipulations by the county or city governments. Before the completion of the census, the population census workers and guides should not be asked to do other assignments.

Article 31 All units should ensure that the personnel who have been selected and posted as population census workers and guides will receive the same welfare treatments and benefits in the units as before. The county and city governments will give some subsidies to the population census workers and guides in the period of doing the census work.

Article 32 The training of the population census workers and guides will be organized by the population census organs of the county or city governments. After a short-term training and passing the examination of the training, these personnel will be given the certificates jointly issued by the statistics organs and population census organs of the county or city governments. The population census workers and guides should bear their certificates when they enter the household residences for enumeration.

The case of those who passed themselves as population census workers or guides for doing social investigations or fraud or deception will be looked into and dealt with by public security organs.

Chapter 6 Publication and Handling of Population Census Figures

Article 33 The several major figures obtained by the population census organs will be first speedily tabulated. The offices of leading population census organs of the provincial, autonomous regional and municipal people’s governments should send their tabulation results to the State Council Population Census Office before December 31, 2000. The State Statistical Bureau and the State Council Population Census Office will issue the communiqué before January 31, 2001.

Article 34 The population census forms, after check up, will be collected and coded at the county level by the coders under the guidance of coding instructors according to the standard of unified stipulations.

The coded data will be subject to comprehensive check up and can be transmitted for tabulation only after examination and acceptance.

The coding of the data should be completed before April 30, 2001.

Article 35 The long forms and the short forms filled in the population census will be put into different packaging bags by taking each small investigation area as a unit. The Investigation Form of Dead Population will be put into its respective packaging bag by taking each census district as a unit.

The census materials should be duly packaged for sending and delivery under the escort by special personnel to ensure their completeness without any loss or damage. The delivery unit and the accepting unit should go through the stipulated procedures for the hand over..

Article 36 The population census organs will be in charge of processing the census materials by electronic computers. The process of tabulation will be stipulated by the State Council Population Census Office.

Article 37 The offices of leading population census organs at the provincial, autonomous and municipal level should deliver all the tabulation results to the State Council Population Census Office before September 30, 2001. The State Council Population Census Office will complete the tabulations of the national population census before December 31, 2001 and then proclaim the tabulation materials.

Article 38 The population figures in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region will be computed according to the materials provided by the regional governments of Hong Kong and Macao.

Article 39 The population figures in the Taiwan, Penghu, Jinmen and Mazu region will be computed according to the materials proclaimed by the Taiwan authorities.

Article 40 The data and materials obtained from the national, provincial, autonomous regional and municipal population census will be under the management of the State Council Population Census Office and the leading population census organs of the provincial, autonomous regional and municipal people’s governments.

Article 41 The population census data will not be used for examining the administrative achievements of the governments at grassroots level. The census data will not be used to look into the responsibilities of those who had hidden facts or had some omission in reporting in the past

Article 42 The State Council Population Census Office and the leading population census organs of the provincial, autonomous regional and municipal people’s governments should make  appraisal, analysis and study of the materials and tabulations in the census and compile reports on the census and their census work to the State Council and the provincial, autonomous regional and municipal governments

Article 43 The violations of the stipulations in the measures hereby will be subject to criticism and education by the population census organs. The related individuals working in the units will be subject to the administrative and disciplinary penalty by the units. The serious cases will be punished according to the Law of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China

Chapter 7   Appendix

Article 44 A few remote border areas with very difficult communication conditions have to adopt other methods of investigation in the population census but it must receive the prior approval by the leading group of the State Council Population Census on application.

Article 45 The details for implementing the stipulations in these measures hereby will be worked out by the State Council Population Census Office..

Article 46 The measures hereby will be implemented as from the date of proclamation.