ABSTRACT
Scheduled for a highly unusual time of the year, China’s fifth national population census was held on 1 November 2000. The census ran into major problems of non-cooperation among couples with unauthorized births, migrants and other persons with vested interests in evading correct registration, whose numbers had constantly grown in recent years. Amidst a flurry of relevant reports, the period of enumeration had to be prolonged for five days. Even so, a first quality check in a random sample of 602 census blocks revealed an undercount of 1.81 per cent. Calculated for the whole population, the percentage is equal to roughly 23 million people. This number is already included in the preliminary census results, which have been published sparsely and with considerable delay. The publication of preliminary data is still incomplete and does not conform to previous practice. In particular, information on the precise age and sex structure or the birth and death rate during the twelve preceding months is lacking. It may be speculated that raw figures show the latter ones to be implausibly low. The information available to date is collected and compared to previous counts in Table 35. Major results of the November 2000 census and the preceding counts https://www.niso.org/standards/z39-96/ns/oasis-exchange/table">
7/1953
7/1964
7/1982
7/1990
11/2000
Total population
(Million)
582.60
694.58
1008.18
1133.71
1265.83
Infants 0–1
(Million)
19.26
28.59
20.81
23.22
%
3.3
4.1
2.1
2.0
Youth 0–14
(Million)
207.99
281.31
337.25
313.00
289.79
%
35.7
40.5
33.5
27.6
22.9
Working age 15–64
(Million)
348.98
388.27
621.62
757.68
887.93
%
59.9
55.9
61.7
66.8
70.2
Old age 65+
(Million)
25.63
25.00
49.28
63.02
88.11
%
4.4
3.6
4.9
5.6
7.0
Dependency ratio
%
66.9
78.9
62.2
49.6
42.6
Women 15–49
(Million)
135.09
152.81
248.59
306.35
%
23.2
22.0
24.7
27.0
Average private household size
4.3
4.3
4.4
4.0
3.4
Minority population
(Million)
35.32
39.92
67.24
91.32
106.43
%
6.1
5.8
6.7
8.1
8.4
Urban population
(Million)
77.26
127.10
206.31
296.15
455.94
%
13.3
18.3
20.5
26.2
36.1
Marital status, age 15+
Unmarried
%
n.a.
n.a.
28.6
25.1
Married
%
n.a.
n.a.
63.7
68.2
Widowed
%
n.a.
n.a.
7.2
6.1
Divorced
%
n.a.
n.a.
0.6
0.6
Illiteracy, age 15+
%
n.a.
52.5
34.5
22.2
8.7
Educational attainment, age 6+
Elementary School
%
n.a.
34.1
39.9
42.3
Junior High School
%
n.a.
5.6
20.0
26.5
Senior High School
%
n.a.
1.6
7.5
9.0
College and University
%
n.a.
0.5
0.7
1.6
Births in preceding year
(Million)
n.a.
n.a.
20.69
24.07
Birth rate for preceding year
%
n.a.
n.a.
20.9
21.6
Notes: Data include the military but exclude Hongkong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese; agespecific data for 1953 and 1964 with adjustments for the military and unrecorded age by A. Coale. The dependency ratio gives the number of dependents in age groups 0–14 and 65+ per 100 persons of working age 15–64. The definitions for urban population of the various censuses are not strictly compatible. Figures for educational attainment include persons attending school at a specified level and do not include persons with unknown educational levels. The 1964 census gave the illiteracy rate for population age 13+ and the figures for educational attainment for population age 7+.
Sources: Coale 1984; Zhongguo 1982 nian renkou pucha ziliao; Zhongguo 1990 nian renkou pucha ziliao; Kua shiji de Zhongguo renkou (Zonghe juan) 1994; RR, 29 March 2001. For data on births and birth rate in preceding year see Chart 3.