Brief Introduction

 

I. Main Content

Data in this chapter show the basic condition of population in 2004 and in previous years of the whole nation and of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, such as the national population, urban population and rural population over the years; population, birth rates, death rates, natural growth rates, dependency ratio, household size and education attainment of population by region.

II. Source of Data

Data in this chapter are prepared by the Department of Population and Employment Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics. In tables 4-1 and 4-2, figures for 1982-1989 have been adjusted in line with the data from the population censuses of 1982 and 1990, and figures for 1990-2000 have been adjusted on the basis of the 2000 population census, figures for 2001-2004 are estimates from the annual national sample survey on population changes, while figures for other years are statistics derived from household registration. Data in Table 4-3 are estimates from the annual national sample survey on population changes in 2004. Data in Table 4-4 present the main results from the five national population censuses. Data in Table 4-5 are compiled from the 1990 and 2000 population censuses. Data in tables 4-6 to 4-16 are the results of the annual national sample survey on population changes in 2004.  

The reference time of annual national sample survey on population changes in 2004 was conducted in zero hour of November 1st,2004.The sample survey was using the multi-stage systematic PPS cluster sampling scheme, taking the whole nation as the population and each province, autonomous region or municipality as the sub-population. A total of 1.25 million people were selected as the sample from 6,370 survey districts in 3,631 townships (towns and urban neighborhood committees) in 997 counties (cities and districts) of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The weighted estimation procedure suggested that the birth rate was 12.29 per thousand, the death rate was 6.42 per thousand and the natural growth rate was 5.87 per thousand for China in 2004. Based on these rates, it was further estimated that China had a total population of 1,299.88 million at the end of 2004, with 15.93 million births, 8.32 million deaths and a net increase of 7.61 million people during the year.