Brief Introduction
I. Main Contents
Data in this chapter show the basic condition of the population in 2012
as well as in 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, population dependency coefficient,
average family household size and education attainments of the population by
the end of 2012.
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 to
3-6, figures for 1981 and before are from household registrations; data for the
year 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2010 are the census year estimates; the rest of the
data covered in those tables are estimates from the annual national sample
survey on population changes and data for selected years have been revised
according to the census results. In table 3-7, data are estimates from the 2012
national sample survey on population changes in 2012. Table 3-8 contains the
major indicators of the past six population censuses. In table 3-9, data are
calculated by using 1990, 2000 and 2010 census years’ results. In table 3-10 to
3-18, data are the sample data from national sample survey on population
changes in 2012.
Data in all the tables of this chapter do not
include that from Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and
III. Sampling Methodology
The statistical surveys on population which are
conducted by Department of Population and Employment Statistics of NBS are as
follows:
The national population census is conducted in the year ending with 0;
the national 1 percent population sample survey is conducted in the year ending
with 5; sample surveys on population changes are conducted in the rest of the
years which cover about 1 per thousand of the total population of the country.
The sample survey on population change takes the whole nation as the population
and each province, autonomous region or municipality as sub-populations, and
the stratified multi-stage systematic PPS cluster sampling scheme is used.