Main article: Demographics of the People's Republic of China
By end of 2010, the proportion of mainland Chinese people aged 14 or younger was 16.60%, while the number aged 60 or older grew to 13.26%, giving a total proportion of 29.86% dependents. The proportion of the population of workable age was thus around 70%.[280]
Although a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty since 1978. Today, about 10% of the Chinese population lives below the poverty line of US$1 per day, down from 64% in 1978. Urban unemployment in China reportedly declined to 4% by the end of 2007, although true overall unemployment may be as high as 10%.[281]
With a population of over 1.3 billion and dwindling natural resources, China is very concerned about its population growth and has attempted, with mixed results,[282] to implement a strict family planning policy. The government's goal is one child per family, with exceptions for ethnic minorities and a degree of flexibility in rural areas. It is hoped that population growth in China will stabilize in the early decades of the 21st century, though some projections estimate a population of anywhere between 1.4 billion and 1.6 billion by 2025. China's family planning minister has indicated that the one-child policy will be maintained until at least 2020.[283]
The one-child policy is resisted, particularly in rural areas, because of the need for agricultural labour and a traditional preference for boys (who can later serve as male heirs). Families who breach the policy often lie during the census.[284] Official government policy opposes forced sterilization or abortion, but allegations of coercion continue as local officials, who are faced with penalties for failing to curb population growth, may resort to forcible measures, or manipulation of census figures.
The decreasing reliability of China population statistics since family planning began in the late 1970s has made evaluating the effectiveness of the policy difficult.[284] Data from the 2010 census implies that the total fertility rate may now be around 1.4.[285] The government is particularly concerned with the large imbalance in the sex ratio at birth, apparently the result of a combination of traditional preference for boys and family planning pressure, which led to a ban on using ultrasound devices in an attempt to prevent sex-selective abortion.
According to the 2010 census, there were 118.06 boys born for every 100 girls, which is 0.53 points lower than the ratio obtained from a population sample survey carried out in 2005.[286] However, the gender ratio of 118.06 is still beyond the normal range of around 105 percent, and experts warn of increased social instability should this trend continue.[287] For the population born between the years 1900 and 2000, it is estimated that there could be 35.59 million fewer females than males.[288] Other demographers argue that perceived gender imbalances may arise from the underreporting of female births.[289][290][291][292] A recent study suggests that as many as three million Chinese babies are hidden by their parents every year.[292] According to the 2010 census, males accounted for 51.27 percent of the total population, while females made up 48.73 percent of the total.[286]
Ethnic groups
Main articles: List of ethnic groups in China, Ethnic minorities in China, and Ethnic groups in Chinese history
| Ethnic composition (2000)[293] | |
|---|---|
| Han | 91.59% |
| Zhuang | 1.28% |
| Manchu | 0.84% |
| Hui | 0.78% |
| Miao | 0.71% |
| Uyghur | 0.66% |
| Tujia | 0.63% |
| Other | 3.51% |
China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.51% of the total population.[294] The Han Chinese—the world's largest single ethnic group—outnumber other ethnic groups in every province, municipality and autonomous region except Tibet and Xinjiang, and are descended from ancient Huaxia tribes living along the Yellow River.
Ethnic minorities account for about 8.49% of the population of China, according to the 2010 census.[294] Compared with the 2000 population census, the Han population increased by 66,537,177 persons, or 5.74%, while the population of the 55 national minorities combined increased by 7,362,627 persons, or 6.92%.[294]
The 2010 census recorded a total of 593,832 foreign citizens living in China. The largest such groups were from South Korea (120,750), the United States (71,493) and Japan (66,159).[295]
Languages
Main articles: Languages of China and List of endangered languages in China
Classical Chinese was the written standard in China for thousands of years, and allowed for written communication between speakers of various unintelligible languages and dialects in China. Written vernacular Chinese, or baihua, is the written standard, based on the Mandarin dialect and first popularized in Ming Dynasty novels. It was adopted, with significant modifications, during the early 20th century as the national standard. Classical Chinese is still part of the high school curriculum, and is thus intelligible to some degree to many Chinese. Since their promulgation by the government in 1956, Simplified Chinese characters have become the official standardized written script used to write the Chinese language within mainland China, supplanting the use of the earlier Traditional Chinese characters.
Urbanization
See also: List of cities in the People's Republic of China, List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population, and Metropolitan regions of China
Today, the People's Republic of China has dozens of cities with one million or more long-term residents, including the three global cities of Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The figures in the table below are from the 2008 census, and are only estimates of the urban populations within administrative city limits; a different ranking exists when considering the total municipal populations (which includes suburban and rural populations). The large "floating populations" of migrant workers make conducting censuses in urban areas difficult;[301] the figures below do not include the floating population, only long-term residents.
|
Largest cities or towns of the People's Republic of China Sixth National Population Census of the People's Republic of China (2010) |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | Rank | City name | Province | Pop. | ||
 Shanghai  Beijing |
1 | Shanghai | Shanghai | 22,315,426 | 11 | Shenyang | Liaoning | 5,743,718 |  Tianjin  Guangzhou |
| 2 | Beijing | Beijing | 18,827,000 | 12 | Hangzhou | Zhejiang | 5,695,313 | ||
| 3 | Tianjin | Tianjin | 11,090,314 | 13 | Chongqing | Chongqing | 5,402,721 | ||
| 4 | Guangzhou | Guangdong | 11,070,654 | 14 | Harbin | Heilongjiang | 4,517,549 | ||
| 5 | Shenzhen | Guangdong | 10,357,938 | 15 | Suzhou | Jiangsu | 4,074,000 | ||
| 6 | Dongguan | Guangdong | 8,220,937 | 16 | Jinan | Shandong | 3,922,180 | ||
| 7 | Chengdu | Sichuan | 7,123,697 | 17 | Xi'an | Shaanxi | 3,890,098 | ||
| 8 | Hong Kong | Hong Kong | 7,055,071 | 18 | Wuxi | Jiangsu | 3,542,319 | ||
| 9 | Nanjing | Jiangsu | 6,852,984 | 19 | Hefei | Anhui | 3,352,076 | ||
| 10 | Wuhan | Hubei | 6,434,373 | 20 | Changchun | Jilin | 3,341,700 | ||
Education
Main article: Education in the People's Republic of China
As of 2007, 93.3% of the population over age 15 are literate,[279][304] compared to only 20% in 1950.[305] In 2000, China's literacy rate among 15-to-24-year-olds was 98.9% (99.2% for males and 98.5% for females).[306] In March 2007, the Chinese government declared education a national "strategic priority"; the central budget for national scholarships was tripled between 2007 and 2009, and 223.5 billion yuan (US$28.65 billion) of extra state funding was allocated between 2007 and 2012 to improve compulsory education in rural areas.[307]
In 2009, Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world's best results in mathematics, science and literacy, as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a worldwide evaluation of 15-year-old school pupils' scholastic performance.[308]
The quality of Chinese colleges and universities varies considerably across the country. The consistently top-ranked universities in mainland China are:[309][310]
- Beijing: Peking University, Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, Beijing Normal University
- Shanghai: Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tongji University, East China Normal University
- Harbin: Harbin Institute of Technology
- Tianjin: Nankai University, Tianjin University
- Xi'an: Xi'an Jiaotong University
- Nanjing: Nanjing University
- Hefei: University of Science and Technology of China
- Hangzhou: Zhejiang University
- Wuhan: Wuhan University
- Guangzhou: Sun Yat-sen University (aka Zhongshan University)
Health
Main article: Public health in the People's Republic of China
As of 2012, China's national average life expectancy at birth is 74.8 years,[317] and its infant mortality rate is 15.6 per thousand births.[318] Despite significant improvements in health and the construction of advanced medical facilities, China has several emerging public health problems, such as respiratory illnesses caused by widespread air pollution[319] and hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers,[320][321] a possible future HIV/AIDS epidemic, and an increase in obesity among urban youths.[322][323] China's large population and densely populated cities have led to serious disease outbreaks in recent years, such as the 2003 outbreak of SARS, although this has since been largely contained.[324]
Estimates of excess deaths in China from environmental pollution (apart from smoking) are placed at 760,000 people per annum from air and water pollution (including indoor air pollution).[325] In 2007, China overtook the United States as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide.[326] Some 90% of China's cities suffer from some degree of water pollution,[327] and nearly 500 million people lacked access to safe drinking water in 2005.[328] Reports by the World Bank and the New York Times have claimed industrial pollution, particularly of the air, to be a significant health hazard in China.[329]
Religion
Main article: Religion in China
The Temple of Heaven, a large complex of Taoist buildings in Beijing, where the Emperor was said to commune with Heaven.
Despite the surveys' varying results, most agree that China's traditional religions—Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religions—are the dominant faiths. According to various sources, Buddhism in China accounts for between 660 million (~50% of the population) and over 1 billion (~80%),[332][333][334][335] while Taoists number as many as 400 million (~30%).[336][337] However, because of the fact that one person may subscribe to two or more of these traditional beliefs simultaneously, and the difficulty in clearly differentiating Buddhism, Taoism, and Chinese folk religions, there is likely a strong degree of overlap in the number of adherents of these religions. In addition, some who subscribe to Buddhism and Taoism follow their philosophies in principle but stop short of believing in any kind of deity or divinity.[338][339][340]
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Harbin, northeast China. By 1921, Harbin had a Russian population of around 100,000, feeding the growth of Christianity in the city.[341]
Christianity was first introduced to China during the Tang Dynasty, with the arrival of Nestorian Christianity in 635 AD. This was followed by Franciscan missionaries in the 13th century, Jesuits in the 16th century, and finally Protestants in the 19th century. Of China's minority religions, Christianity is one of the fastest-growing. The total number of Christians is difficult to determine, as many belong to unauthorized house churches, but estimates of their number have ranged from 40 million (3% of the total population)[330][348] to 54 million (4%)[349] to as many as 130 million (10%).[350] Official government statistics put the number of Christians at 25 million, but these count only members of officially sanctioned church bodies.[351] China is believed to now have the world's second-largest evangelical Christian population—behind only the United States—and is also experiencing a surge in mainstream Christian publishing.[352][353] In 2011, it was reported that more people attended Sunday church services in China than in all of Europe.[351]
China also plays host to numerous minority religions, including Hinduism, Dongbaism, Bön, and a number of more modern religions and sects (particularly Xiantianism). In July 1999, the Falun Gong spiritual practice was officially banned by the authorities,[362] and many international organizations have criticized the government's treatment of Falun Gong that has occurred since then.[363] There are no reliable estimates of the number of Falun Gong practitioners in China,[364] although informal estimates have given figures as high as 70 million.[365][366]
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