About Population Census

Major figures of the 2000 population census

(www.cpirc.org.cn)
Updated: 2010-08-20 14:01

VI. Composition of Nationalities.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 1,159.40 million persons or 91.59 percent were of Han nationality, and 106.43 million persons or 8.41 percent were of various national minorities. Compared with the 1990 population census, the population of Han people increased by 116.92 million persons, or 11.22 percent; while the population of various national minorities increased by 15.23 million persons, or 16.70 percent.

VII. Composition of Educational Attainment.

Of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 45.71 million persons had finished university education (referring to junior college and above); 141.09 million persons had received senior secondary education (including secondary technical school education); 429.89 million persons had received junior secondary education and 451.91 million persons had had primary education (the educated persons included graduates and students in schools).

Compared with the 1990 population census, the following changes had taken place in the number of people with various educational attainments of every 100,000 people: number of people with university education increased to 3,611 from 1,422; number of people with senior secondary education increased to 11,146 from 8,039; number of people with junior secondary education increased from 23,344 to 33,961; and number of people with primary education decreased from 37,057 to 35,701.

Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 85.07 million persons were illiterate (i.e. people over 15 years of age who can not read or can read very little). Compared with the 15.88 percent of illiterate people in the 1990 population census, the proportion had dropped to 6.72 percent, or down by 9.16 percentage points.

VIII. Urban and Rural Population.

In the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of the mainland of China, there were 455.94 million urban residents, accounting for 36.09 percent of the total population; and that of rural residents stood at 807.39 million, accounting for 63.91 percent. Compared with the 1990 population census, the proportion of urban residents rose by 9.86 percentage points.

Note:

1. All figures in the Communiqué are preliminary results.

2. Population enumerated, with zero hour of November 1, 2000 (Beijing Time) as the reference time, refers to people with citizenship of the People's Republic of China and with permanent residence on the mainland of the country.

3. A post-enumeration check was conducted nation wide covering 602 enumeration districts after the field enumeration. The result of the sample survey indicated that the underreport rate was 1.81 percent. The total population of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities of the mainland of China had taken into consideration of the underreporting.

4. Population of Hong Kong SAR was obtained from data on June 30, 2000, which was provided by Hong Kong SAR government.

5. Population of Macao SAR was obtained from data on September 30, 2000, which was provided by Macro SAR government.

6. Population of Taiwan Province, Jinmen, Mazu and a few other islands refers to population at the end of December 2000, which was released by the Taiwan authority.

7. Population of family households does not include servicemen nor those who are not related to one another and live as single person in the non-family household.

8. Calculation of urban and rural population is based on "Regulation on statistical classification of urban and rural areas (draft)" released by the National Bureau of Statistics in 1999.