I. Data in this chapter show the basic condition of population at the 5th National Population Census and at the previous
censuses, including the main data of population of the whole nation and of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities directly under the central government, such as the national population, urban population and rural population
over the years, as well as data of the computer tabulation of the 5th national population census, such as number of
households by province, population and sex ratios, population by education attainment, illiterate population, type of family
households, housing status of family households, etc. In addition, a comparison is made among the main data of the five
population censuses undertaken after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

II. The 14 tables in this chapter are prepared and provided by the Department of Population, Social and Science Statistics of
the National Bureau of Statistics. In tables 4-1 and 4-2, figures before 1982 are collected from the household registration
records, figures for 1982-1989 have been adjusted in accordance with the data from the population censuses of 1982 and
1990, and figures for 1990-1999 are adjusted on the basis of the 2000 population census. Data in Table 4-3 are estimates
from the annual national sample survey on population changes conducted in 2001. Data in Table 4-4 present the main
results from the five national population censuses. Data in other tables are obtained from the computer tabulation of the 5th
national population census in 2000.

III. Population enumerated in 2000 national population census refers to people with citizenship of the People's Republic of
China and with permanent residence on the mainland of the country. The principle of de jure population was adopted in the
population census, that is everyone should be enumerated at his/her permanent residence and one person is enumerated
only at one place. The reference time of the census is zero hour of November 1, 2000. Data of 2000 national population
census are the data of de jure population at the reference time.

Data for the 2000 population census presented in this chapter are the result of direct tabulation of the enumeration records
without any adjustment. Therefore,

a) Data do not include population not enumerated in the census.

b) Data do not include the 2.5 million servicemen of the People's Liberation Army.

c) Total population as shown in tables in this publication is 1,242.61 million, or 23.22 million less than the population figure
of 1,265.83 million (including 2.5 million servicemen) released earlier by the National Bureau of Statistics, which was based on
the advance tabulation.

d) The post-enumeration sample survey indicates an undercount of 1.81% in the census enumeration.

IV. The annual survey on population changes for 2001 was conducted with a multi-stage systematic PPS cluster sampling
scheme, taking the whole nation as the population and each of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities as the
sub-population. A total of 1.22 million people were selected as the sample from 5,049 survey districts in 3,398 townships
(towns and urban neighborhood committees) in 896 counties (cities and districts) of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions
and municipalities. The weighted estimation procedure suggested that the birth rate was 13.38 per thousand, the death rate
was 6.43 per thousand and the natural growth rate was 6.95 per thousand for China in 2001. Based on these rates, it was
further estimated that China had a total population of 1,276,270,000 at the end of 2001, with 17.02 million births and a net
increase of 8.84 million people during the year.