Brief Introduction

I. Main Contents

Data in this chapter show the basic condition of the population in 2015 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 2015.

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 2-1 to 2-7, figures for 1981 and before (except 2-4) 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 2-8, data are estimates from the 1% Population Sample Survey in 2015. In tables 2-9 to 2-17, data are the sample data of the 1% Population Sample Survey in 2015.

Data in all the tables of this chapter do not include that from Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan unless otherwise stated.

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 (Prefectural regions are taken as sub-populations in the 1% Population Sample Survey in 2015), and the stratified multi-stage systematic PPS cluster sampling scheme is used.