The size of Chinese family keeps on shrinking; more people
moving and settling down in cities; the aging of people
accelerating and the sex ratio becoming more balanced, according to
census data released by the country's statistics bureau on
Wednesday.
The sample census, covering one percent of the whole population,
began nationwide at 12:00 on November 1, 2005 and ended in early
2006.
The number of households under coverage was 5,391,013. On
average, there were 3.13 persons in each family, compared with 3.44
persons in the previous census in 2000. And the figure in 1990 was
3.92 persons in each family.
The sample census results showed that of all the sampled
population, 8,585,000 were males and 8,401,000 were female. The sex
ratio was about 102.2 males per 100 females in 2005. The situation
in 2000 was 106.74 males per 100 females.
Urban population, including people living in cities and towns,
accounted for 44.8 percent, a growth of 8.7 percentage points over
the last census.
The Han people still take overwhelming majority of the
population, accounting for 90.75 percent of the total, which was
slightly lower than the 91.95 percent for the previous census. The
population of Zhuang and Yi nationalities ranked the first and
second in the minorities, accounting for 1.37 percent and 0.79
percent, respectively.
As for age, the 0-14, 15-64 and 65 and above age groups take
proportion of 19.55 percent, 71.4 percent and 9.1 percent
separately. The census saw a fall of 3.34 percentage points in the
population of 0-14 age group and an increase of 2.14 percentage
points in that of 65 and above age group.
But the sample census did not release the updated population of
the country.
The sample census, measuring age, gender, distribution,
education, income and marital condition, was aimed to make clearer
China's population and the citizen's structure and qualities.
The country had carried out five national censuses in 1953,
1964, 1982, 1990 and 2000 since it was founded in 1949.
(Xinhua News Agency January 4, 2008)