The natural growth rate of Pingdingshan’s population in 2008 was 5.2%. The total population was 5.011 million, comprised of 2.014 million urban residents and 2.997 million rural residents. The urbanization rate was 40.2%, 1.45 percentage points higher than the previous year.

Five religions—Buddhism, Taoism, Islamism, Catholicism and Christianity—have established a presence in Pingdingshan. The city has 42 religious groups: 5 municipal-level religious groups and 37 county-level religious groups.

In addition to Han Chinese people,the city has 36 ethnic groups, to which 70,875 of Pingdingshan’s people belong, accounting for 1.42% of the total population of the city. Among the minorities, Hui claims the most people--55,587, accounting for 78% of the total population of the minority people. Hui is followed by Man, with 6,365 people, accounting for 9% of the total, and then Mongolian, with 5,568 people, accounting for 7.9% of the total, while other minorities comprise fewer people. The city includes a county (Yexian) with more than 10,000 minority people, 2 minority townships (Mazhuang Hui township, in Yexian county, and Yaozhuang Hui township, in Jiaxian county), 23 townships (towns and offices) with more than 1,000 minority people, 67 minority villages (including 52 Hui villages, 9 Man villages and 6 Mongolian villages) and 23 minority schools (including 2 Hui secondary schools, 20 Hui primary schools and a Mongolian school).