General 

The estimates as to the size and growth of the population differ rather considerably. Officially 1199 million people lived in China (including Honking, Macao and Taiwan) at the end of 1994, but unofficial sources pointed to a population of 1300 million. The American CIA estimated the number of people in 2002 at about 1285 million, which is nearly one fifth of the world population. The population growth in that year was 0.87 %. China aims at a growth percentage of 0 %. This should be reached halfway the 21st century and the number of inhabitants should be stabilized at 1.6 billion. 
Nearly one quarter of the population (24.3 %) was younger than 15 in 2002. After 1953 the number of children per woman decreased (from 3.7 % to 1.82 % in 2002) as a result of an intensive campaign for family planning and of social changes (amongst other things the one-child policy, employment of married women in the production process and extension of education). The mortality rate went down in this period from 22 % to 6.77 % in 2002. This is due to improvements in sanitary and hygienic circumstances, and extension of medical provisions. Because of the pursued one-child policy and the descent of the mortality rate the ageing of the population will increase strongly: the number of people of 60 and older will rise with 250 million to 400 million in the coming 25 years.

In 2002 the estimated average life expectancy at birth was 70.02 years for men and 73.86 years for women. In 1930 the average life span was 24 years.

Except for Macao and Taiwan, about 15 to 30 million Chinese people live abroad, most of them in South East Asia. The Chinese themselves give higher amounts than the countries they live in. In these countries Chinese people born in the country, are often not considered Chinese anymore.

Composition and spreading. 

The Chinese proper (Han) constitute about 92 % of the total population, and live predominantly in the densely-populated east of China. China has been Han-Chinese for more than 2,000 years, with the exception of Xinjiang, large parts of Yunnan, Tibet, Qinghai, Inner-Mongolia and parts of Manchuria. Within Han-China there also still exist large cultural and linguistic differences. Examples of this are the Hakka, the Tujias (living in Hunan, Hubei Sichuan), the Cantonese and the largest Han minority, the Zhuang (about 20 million). The Zhuang are mainly to be found in the southern provinces of China, and they belong to the Thai Dai race and speak a Sino-Tibetan language.

The remaining 8 % consists of 55 groups, the most important of which are: the Zhuang, Hui, Uyguren, Yi, Miao, Man, Xizang (Tibetans) and Menggu (Mongols). The population size of  the minorities varies enormously, from 20 million Zhuang to about 1500 Hezhe, who live in the north east. The non-Chinese groups, acknowledged since 1979 as national minorities, are spread mostly over the west and south west of China, mainly in the usually thinly-populated border areas. All in all some 60 million people are considered minorities. The political meaning of these ‘national minorities’ is important, because they live in strategically important border areas and as a rule belong to the peoples living in the neighboring countries.

It is known, however, that a strong migration of proper Chinese has taken place to these areas (amongst others Xinjiang, Uygur, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Inner-Mongolia) in order to speed up development, but most probably also to accelerate the ‘making Chinese’ of the non-Chinese areas.

The largest population concentrations are to be found in the coastal areas and in the fertile valleys of the Huang He and the Yangi Jiang, the North-Chinese lowland, the South-Chinese coastal area and the loess plateau of Central China. At the estuary of the Yangzi (among others Shanghai) and in certain districts of Guangdong there are more than 1000 persons per square kilometre. The population density of the million city of Shanghai belongs to the highest in the world, about 19,000 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Urbanization is relatively small: about 29 % of the population lives in the cities. It’s true that in the 50s a strong move to the cities was mentioned (1950: 10 % of the total population lived in cities; 1960: 15 %), later this development was stopped (among others by the ban to settle in a city without a working permit) and considerable groups of people were even taken to the country. With its 13.6 million inhabitants (1994) Shanghai is the largest city of China, followed by Beijing (11.3 million). Others cities of which the population exceeds 1 million are amongst others Tianjin (9.4 million), Chengdu (9.4 million), Wuhan (6.8 million), Changhun (6.5 million), Chongqing (6.5 million), Xián (6.2 million) and Canton (6.1 million).

(These numbers indicate the population living in the local region.)  

Short description of the various population groups.

In the autonomous region Xinjiang various minorities live:

UYGUREN
The largest Turkish speaking minority group in this region. They are Sunnite Muslims. For a long time they belonged to one of the most developed cultural minorities of Central Asia, with their own, Arabic writing.

KAZAKS
Kazaks are Turkish nomads, consisting of about 1 million people, many of whom fled to China after the Russian revolution in 1917. Generally they still live a nomadic existence and they wander about with their camels and yurts (nomadic tents). They live mainly in the northern plain of Xinjiang, which forms a natural unity with Kazakhstan on the other side of the border.

KYRGYZIANS
They are also a nomadic, Islamic Turkish minority group. After the 1917 rising in Russia large numbers of Kyrgyzians fled to China, where they settled especially north of Kashgar.

HUI or HOEI (a.k.a. DUNGAN)
The Hui do not form an ethnic minority, but more a religious one. It is a Muslim group of about 7 million people, descending from Chinese people converted to Islam. They are Islamic descendants of the merchants from the Middle East who lived on the Silk route. They now live mostly in the provinces of Gansu, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Ningxia, but also in cities like Xi’an (it even has 15 mosques), Beijing and Guangzhou. They speak Chinese and most of them cannot be distinguished from Han Chinese.

SIBU
The Sibu live in the northwest and they descend from Manchu troops staying in Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty.

TADCHIKS
The Tadchiks originate from Iran and live in the west along the border with Tadchikistan. An important town is Taxhorgan or Tashkurgan. They speak a kind of Persian and consist of only 20,000 people.

RUSSIANS
Especially in the north of Xinjiang there are more than 8,000 Chinese Russians. In 1917 the existing group was enlarged with refugees from the Russian Revolution.

Now follows a short description of populations from various Chinese provinces and regions:

In the south the YI (about 5 million people) live in the provinces of Yunnan, Sichuan, Guanxi and Guizhou. The MIAO also live in the south. 

In the north east of China there are some 2.5 million MANCHUS, of old a warlike people, but now almost fully assimilated within the Han-culture.

The best-known minority is formed by the about 500,000 MONGOLS of Inner Mongolia, who constitute a minority of about 20 % in their own “country”. 

The TIBETANS (some 3.5 million) live not only in their proper region Tibet, but also in the mountainous inland of China, such as western Sichuan, western Yunnan, south-eastern Gansu, and Qinghai. Also Tibetans live in exile in India and Nepal.

The Tibetans descend from the Turan and Tangut people from Central Asia, who migrated from the north to Tibet and mingled with the local population.
The NAXI lived in the northwest of China thousands of years ago, in the provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. They were driven to the south of China by invaders from Central Asia. The Naxi belong to the few peoples in the world where the remains of a matriarchal structure are clearly present. The women perform both the heavy and the important tasks and thus dominate family life.

Traditionally the men are gardeners, they look after the children, make music and often have a passion for horses. 

The DONG are a minority of about 1 million people spread over Guizho, Guangxi and Hunan. The town of Sanjiang in the province of Guangxi is the centre of the Dong-district. The Dong are a people that know how to handle wood. For more than a thousand years bridges and houses have built with intricate wood constructions. They have a language of their own. 

The BOUYEI in the southern province of Guizhou are considered the original inhabitants, though they descend from the Thai people and are related to the Zhuang. The Bouyei are very poor, generally, and for their life-support they depend strongly on water.
The DAI-tribe lives in the province of Yunnan, in the autonomous district Xishuangbanna, and consists of three groups: the Water Dai, the Dry Dai and the Flower belt Dai, who are distinguished from each other by clothing, traditions and social circumstances.
For a long time the Dai have had their own written language, a Sino-Tibetan language of the Zuangh-Dong branch. They are very religious and adhere to the Theravada- or Hinayana-buddhism, which was spread from Myanmar (Burma) about a thousand years ago.

Smaller minorities are LAHUS, OROGEN, DA’UR, QIANG, XIBE, XIANBEI, EWENKI, WA, NU, MONBA, BUYI and BAI.

The province of Yunnan has 35 million inhabitants, of whom 23 million are Han-Chinese and 12 million belong to one of the many minorities such as MIAO, BAI (one of the oldest native tribes of Yunnan), YI, NAXI, HANI, JINGPO, WA, and the JINUO. 

Population policy. 

The first government program for birth control dates from the middle of the 50s of last century and the last program became effective in September 2002. In 1978 the government started a campaign to limit the number of children per family to one. This campaign was the most successful in the urban areas. In the country, where traditions are stronger and large families are necessary to work the land, the program had much less result.
As inheritance in China is passed on via the male line, male heirs are preferred. In the country, just born girls were often just killed or abandoned. The result was a thoroughly disturbed population structure. From 1953 to 1964 the ratio among just born babies was 105 male against 100 female. Due to, amongst others, echoscope (from 1979), by which the sex of the baby could be established, this ratio changed very much from 119 male babies against 100 female babies in 1992.
Generally it may be said that the campaign has resulted into some 200 million fewer births.

Since September 2002 there is the freedom to have a second child. Moreover, it is not allowed anymore to screen on boys or girls  during pregnancy, and secondary schools are not permitted to distinguish between boys and girls.
This change in program was also instigated by the criticism at home and abroad of especially the pursued one child-policy. (See also; One-child Policy)

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