Brief Introduction

I. Main Content

Data in this chapter show the basic condition of population in 2005 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; as well as population, birth rates, death rates, natural growth rates, dependency ratio, household size and education attainment of population by region in 2005.

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, 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, figures for 2005 are estimated from the National Sample Survey of 1% of Population, while figures for other years are statistics derived from household registration. Data in Table 4-3 are estimates from the 2005 National Sample Survey of 1% of Population. Date in Table 4-4 are from the national and provincial communiqués of the key results of the 2005 National Sample Survey of 1% of Population. Data in Table 4-5 present the main results from the five national population censuses. Data in Table 4-6 are compiled from the 1990 and 2000 population censuses. Data in tables 4-7 to 4-18 are the sample results of the 2005 National Sample Survey of 1% of Population.  

The National Sample Survey of 1% of Population adopted a multi-stage stratified 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 16.99 million people were selected from 77,417 survey districts in 21,181 townships (towns and urban neighborhood committees) in 2,869 counties (cities and districts) of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities. The weighted estimation procedure suggested that the birth rate was 12.40 per thousand, the death rate was 6.51 per thousand and the natural growth rate was 5.89 per thousand for China in 2005. Based on these rates, it was further estimated that China had a total population of 1,307.56 million at the end of 2005, with 16.17 million births, 8.49 million deaths and a net increase of 7.68 million people during the year.