Communique on the First Census of Grassroots Units

National Bureau of Statistics of China 2002-03-31 11:47 Print| Large| Medium| Small

COMMUNIQUE ON THE RESULT OF THE FIRST NATIONAL

CENSUS OF THE GRASSROOTS UNITS IN CHINA

National Bureau of Statistics, People's Republic of China

Office of the First National Census of the Grassroots Units

With the approval of the State Council, the first national census of the grassroots units was undertaken in 1996. The reference time for the census was December 31, 1996. The census covered all the institutional units and establishments engaged in social and economic activities except the agricultural households and self-employed labourers.

Up to the end of July, 1997, all the census data of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government had been submitted to the Office of the National Census of the Grassroots Units and gone through the quality check. At present, the principal data of the census has been tabulated. In order to show the basic conditions of the various grassroots units in China, the data concerned are published as follows:

I. The Situations on the Grassroots Units as a Whole in China

According to the result of the census, by the end of 1996, the number of institutional units totalled 4.402 million except the agricultural households and self-employed labourers. Of the total, the corporations totalled 2.628 million, the administrative units (i.e. government and party organizations) totalled 280 thousand, the social organizations totalled 44 thousand, the other non-profit agencies totalled 61 thousand, and the community administrative agencies (i.e. residents' committees and village committees) totalled 840 thousand.

When the grassroots units are classified by the nature and location of their activities, there were totally 6.351 million establishments in the whole country. Of the total, the profit- making establishments totalled 3.671, the administrative units as well as the. government and party organizations totalled 480 thousand, the social organizations totalled 55 thousand, the institutions totalled 1.305 million, and the community administrative units totalled 840 thousand.

II. The Structure of the Grassroots Units in China

(I) Sector Structure

1. Proportions of the Grassroots Units Among the Three Industries

By the end of 1996, the proportions of the institutional units and establishments engaged in the primary, secondary and tertiary industries were as follows:

Institutional units: 1.4 %, 34.8% and 63.8% respectively

Establishment: 1.4%, 26.5% and 72.1% respectively

2. Distribution of the Grassroots Units Among the Various Sectors

Corporations and the profit-making establishments constitute the main body among the various sectors.

Of the total institutional units, the corporations totalled 2.628 million, accounting for 60%. Of the total establishments, the market oriented profit-making establishments totalled 3.671 million, accounting for 57.8%. The corporations were mainly engaged in the activities of the manufacturing sector and the sector of wholesale and retail trade and catering services. The corporations in the above two sectors accounted for 76.6% of the total. The corporations engaged in the activities of other sectors had a relatively small share. Among them, the bigger ones were construction, social services, banking and insurance as well as mining and quarrying industries. The distribution of the profit-making establishments among various sectors was similar to that of the corporations.

Before the reform and opening-up policies were implemented, the institutional units in the three sectors “health, sports and social welfare”, “education, culture, arts, radio, film and television” and “scientific research and polytechnical services” were almost all nonprofit -making units. The situation has changed since the new policies were carried out. According to the census, the number of corporations in these sectors totalled 27 thousand and the number of establishments totalled 110 thousand. (See Table I)

Table I The Distribution of Corporations and Profit-making Establishments Among Various Sectors

Sector	Number of Corporations (thousand units)	Proportion (%)	Number of Profit-making Establishments (thousand units)	Proportion (%)
Total	2,628	100.0	3,671	100.0
Farming, Forestry, Animal Husbandry & Fishing	59	2.3	93	2.5
Mining & Quarrying	102	3.9	111	3.0
Manufacturing	1,274	48.5	1,377	37.5
Production and Supply of Electricity, Gas & Water	260	1.0	38	1.0
Construction	1260	4.8	51	4.1
Geological Prospecting & Water Conservancy	1	0.0	5.6	0.2
Transport, Storage, Post & Telecommunications	53	2.0	116	3.2
Wholesale and Retail Trade & Catering Services	738	28.1	1,207	32.9
Banking & Insurance	55	2.1	241	6.6
Real Estates	32	1.2	37	1.0
Social Services	109	4.2	166	4.5
Health Care, Sports & Social Welfare	2	0.0	28	0.8
Education, Culture, Arts, Radio, Film & Television	6	0.2	59	1.6
Scientific Research & Polytechnical Services	19	0.7	23	0.6
Other Sectors	25	1.0	16	0.4

Institutions have important positions in the various sectors in China.

Of the total establishments, the number of institutions totalled 1.305 million, accounting for 20.5%. These institutions were distributed in the various sectors except the administrative agencies, social organizations and community administrative agencies, mainly in the sectors “ education, culture, arts, radio, film and television” and“farming, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery”. More than 80% of the institutions are engaged in the activities of the above sectors. (See Table II)

Table II Institutions Classified by Sector

Sector	Number of Institutions (thousand units)	Proportion (%)
Total Farming, Forestry, Animal Husbandry & Fishery	1,305 152	100.0 11.6
Geological Prospecting & Water Conservancy Transport, Storage & Telecommunications	31 18	2.4 1.4
Real Estates	10	0.8
Social Services Health Care, Sports and Social Welfare	60 213	4.6 16.3
Education, Culture, Arts, Radio, Film & Television	735	56.3
Scientific Research & Polytechnical Services	32	2.4
Other Sectors	55	4.2

(II) The Distribution of the Grassroots Units Among Various Regions

In the geographical distribution, the number of the grassroots units had a decreasing tendency from the eastern region to the western region. More than half of the institutional units and more than 48.8% of the establishments were distributed in the eastern region in a concentrated way. Of the total, the number of the institutional units owned by Guangdong Province and the number of the establishments owned by Shandong Province were respectively the highest in China. In Shanghai Municipality the grassroots units were most densely located. In a proper order, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Sichuan and Henan Provinces had also a good number of institutional units and establishments. So far as the distribution of the grassroots among the economic regions was concerned, 27.8% of the institutional units and 25.3% of the establishments were located in 36 main cities ( municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capitals and cities separately listed in the national plan). The distribution of the grassroots units was affected by the economic development, urbanization level, population density, the division of administrative areas and other factors. (See Table III)

Table III Distribution of the Grassroots Units Among the Eastern, Central and Western Regions

Region

Numberof Institutional Units (thousand units)

Proportion

(%)

Numberof Establishments (thousand units)

Proportion

(%)

Total

Eastern Region

Central Region

Western Region

4,402

2,232

1,321

849

100.0

50.7

30.0

19.3

6,351

3,098

2,002

1,251

100.0

48.8

31.5

19.7

(III) The Ownership Structure of the Grassroots Units

Of the total number of corporations, the state-owned and collective owned corporations had the leading position. Their number totalled 1.943 million, accounting for 73.9% of the total. The number of private corporations totalled 443 thousand, accounting for 16.9% of the total. The number of corporations invested by foreign entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan totalled 111 thousand, accounting for 4.2% of the total. The number of share-holding corporations totalled 72 thousand, accounting for 2.7% of the total. (See Table IV)

Table IV Corporations Classified by Types of Ownership

Ownership	Number of Corporations (thousand units)	Proportion (%)
Total	2,628	100.0
State-owned Economy Collective Owned Economy Private Economy Joint Economy Share Holding Economy Economy Funded by Foreign Entrepreneurs & Entrepreneurs from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan	442 1,501 443 44 72 111	16.8 57.1 16.9 1.7 2.7 4.2
Others	15	0.6

(IV) The Size Structure of Grassroots Units in terms of Employed Persons

The corporations in China are in great majority small and medium sized corporations with relatively small number of employed persons. Of the total corporations, the number of corporations with less than 50 employed persons totalled 2.024 million, accounting for 77%. The number of corporations with 50-499 employed persons totalled 553 thousand, accounting for 21%. The number of corporations with 500-999 employed persons totalled 31 thousand, accounting for 1.2%. The number of corporations with 1,000 and more employed persons totalled 21 thousand, accounting for 0.8%; of which the number of corporations with 5,000 and more employed persons totalled 1,847. (See Table V)

Table V Corporations Classified by Size of Employed Persons

Size of Employed Persons	Number of Corporations (thousand units)	Proportion (%)
Total	2,628	100.0
Less than 7 Persons	512	19.5
8-19 Persons	910	34.6
20-49 Persons	602	22.9
50-99 Persons	283	10.8
100-299 Persons	225	8.5
300-499 Persons	45	1.7
500-999 Persons	31	1.2
1,000-4,999 Persons	19	0.7
More than 5,000 Persons	1.847	0.07

(V) The Size Structure of Grassroots Units in Terms of Business Income

The size structure of grassroots units in terms of business income was similar to the situation of the size structure of grassroots units in terms of employed persons. The corporations were mainly those with annual business income equal to or less than 1 million yuan. Their number totalled 1.715 million, accounting for 65.3% of the total. The number of the corporations with annual business income equal to or more than 10 million yuan only totalled 190 thousand, only accounting for 7.2% of the total; of which, the number of the corporations with annual business income equal to or more than 50 million yuan only totalled 43 thousand, only accounting for 1.6% of the total. The number of the corporations with annual business income more than 0.1 but less than 1 billion yuan totalled 19 thousand. The number of the corporations with annual business income more than 1 billion but less than 2 billion yuan totalled 742. The number of the corporations with annual business income more than 2 billion yuan totalled 556. (See Table VI)

Table VI Corporations Classified by Amount of Business Income

Size of Business Income	Number of Corporations (thousand units)	Proportion (%)
Total	2,628	100.0
Less than 0.5 Million Yuan	1,375	52.3
0.5-1 Million Yuan	340	13.0
1-5 Million Yuan	582	22.1
5-10 Million Yuan	140	5.3
10-50 Million Yuan	147	5.6
More than 50 Million Yuan	43	1.6

(VI) Employment in the Grassroots Units

According to the census data, 229.65 million persons were employed in various institutional units by the end of 1995. Of the total, 182.34 million persons were employed in corporations, 12.73 million persons were employed in administrative organizations, 710 thousand persons were employed in social organizations, 26.52 million persons were employed in other nonprofit-making organizations and 7.35 million persons were employed in community administrative agencies.

In sector distribution, 42% of the employed persons were engaged in manufacturing industry, 10.3%, 9.9% and 9.1% of the employed persons were respectively engaged in construction, wholesale and retail trade and catering services as well as administrative and social organizations. Totally 71.3% of the employed persons were engaged in the above four sectors. (See Table VII)

Table VII Employed Persons in Grassroots Units Classified by Sector

Sector	Number of Employed Persons (thousand persons)	Proportion (%)
Total	229,650	100.0
Farming Forestry, Animal Husbandry & Fishery	6,710	2.9
Mining & Quarrying	12,910	5.6
Manufacturing Production & Supply of Electricity, Gas and Water	96,560 3,070	42.0 1.3
Construction	23,700	10.3
Geological Prospecting & Water Conservancy	1,080	0.5
Transport, Storage & Telecommunications Wholesale & Retail Trade and Catering Services	9,440 22,830	4.1 9.9
Banking & Insurance	2,950	1.3
Real Estates	1,300	0.6
Social Services Health Care, Sports & Social Welfare	5,800 4,610	2.5 2.0
Education, Culture, Arts, Radio, Film & Television	13,540	5.9
Government, Party & Social Organizations and Community Administrative Agencies	20,790	0.8
Other Sectors	2,440	9.1

III. The Quality of the Census Data

Examination and Sampling check has been made on the quality of the data of the first national census of the grassroots units by the National Office of the Census of the Grassroots Units. It was found that the omission rate in unit reporting was 7.20‰ , the error rate in filling out the questionnaires by item was 4.24‰. The quality of the census data has achieved the anticipated goal.

Note I. The data in this communique do not include the data of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Macao Region and Taiwan Province.

Note II. In the first national census of the grassroots units, the various grassroots units were enumerated and surveyed in accordance with the unified standard for classification of the grassroots units and standards for statistical classification. Consulting the current international standard for classification of the grassroots units and taking the actual situations in China into account, the grassroots units in the whole country are classified into the following two categories:

1. Institutional unit: It refers to the unit which is legally established, has its own name, institutional framework and working place, independently assumes the civil liability, independently owns and uses (or authorizes other unit to use) the assets, has the right to sign contracts with other units, makes independent accounting and is able to compile balance sheet.

2. Establishment: It refers to the unit which is engaged exclusively or mainly in a certain kind of social and economic activity, relatively independently organizes productive or business activity and is able to keep abreast of the business data on income and expenditure.