Brief Introduction
I. Main Contents
Data
in this chapter show the basic condition of the population in 2008 as well as
previous years for the whole nation and 31 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the Central Government. They include the sizes of
the national population, urban population and rural population over the years;
as well as size, birth rates, death rates, natural growth rates, dependency
ratio, household size and education attainment of the population by region in
2008.
II. Sources of Data
Data
in this chapter are prepared by the Department of Population and Employment
Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics. In tables 3-1 and 3-2, figures
for 1982-1989 have been adjusted in line with the data from the 1990 National
Population Census; figures for 1990-2000 have been adjusted on the basis of the
2000 National Population Census; figures for 2001-2004，2006-2008 are estimated
from the annual national sample survey on population changes; figures for 2005 are estimated from the 2005 National 1%
Population Sample Survey; and figures for other years are statistics derived
from household registration. Data in Table 3-3 and 3-4 are estimated from the
2008 National Sample Survey on Population Changes.
Data
in Table 3-5 present the main results from the five national population
censuses. Data in Table 3-6 are compiled from the 1990 and 2000 National
Population Census. Data in tables 3-7 to 3-15 are the sample results of the
2008 National Sample Survey on Population Changes.
III. Sampling Methodology
The
2008 National Sample Survey on Population Change adopted a stratified
multi-stage systematic PPS cluster sampling scheme, taking the whole nation as
the population and each province, autonomous region or municipality as
sub-populations. A total of 1.18 million people were selected from 11,840
survey districts in 5918 neighborhoods in 3,466 townships (towns and street
committees) in 1,902 counties (cities and districts) of the 31 provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities. The size of the sample was thus 0.887
per thousand of the national population. The weighted estimation procedure
suggested that the birth rate was 12.14 per thousand, the death rate was 7.06
per thousand and the natural growth rate was 5.08 per thousand for