I. Main Content

Data in this chapter show the basic condition of population in 2003 and in previous years 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; population, birth rates, death rates, natural growth rates, dependency
ratio, household size and education attainment of population by province. In addition, a comparison is made among the data
from the five population censuses undertaken after the founding of the People's Republic of China.

II. Source of Data

Data in this chapter are prepared by the Department of Population, Social and Science Statistics of the National Bureau of
Statistics. In tables 4-1 and 4-2, figures for 1982-1989 have been adjusted in line with the data from the population
censuses of 1982 and 1990, and figures for 1990-2000 have been adjusted on the basis of the 2000 population census,
figures for 2001-2003 are estimates from the annual national sample survey on population changes, while figures for other
years are statistics derived from household registration. Data in Table 4-3 are estimates from the annual national sample
survey on population changes in 2003. Data in Table 4-4 present the main results from the five national population
censuses. Data in tables 4-6 to 4-16 are the results of the annual national sample survey on population changes in 2003.
Data in Table 4-5 are compiled from the 1990 and 2000 population censuses.

III. The annual national sample survey on population changes in 2003 was conducted with a multi-stage systematic PPS
cluster sampling scheme, taking the whole nation as the population and each province, autonomous region or municipality as
the sub-population. A total of 1.26 million people were selected as the sample from 6,544 survey districts in 3,734 townships
(towns and urban neighborhood committees) in 990 counties (cities and districts) of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions
and municipalities. The weighted estimation procedure suggested that the birth rate was 12.41 per thousand, the death rate
was 6.40 per thousand and the natural growth rate was 6.01 per thousand for China in 2003. Based on these rates, it was
further estimated that China had a total population of 1,292.27 million at the end of 2003, with 15.99 million births, 8.25
million deaths and a net increase of 7.74 million people during the year.