I. Main contents of this chapter
Data in this chapter show the bas ic condition of population in 2002 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, household
size and education attainment of population by province. Also included in this chapter are data on migration and housing of
the population from the 2000 population census . 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 and 2002 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 es timates from the annual national
sample survey on population changes in 2002. Data in Table 4-4 present the main results from the five national population
censuses. Data in tables 4-5 to 4-12 are the results of the annual national sample survey on population changes in 2002.
Data in Table 4-17 are compiled from the 1990 and 2000 population census es . Data in other tables are obtained from the
computer tabulation of the 5th national population census in 2000.

III. The annual national s ample survey on population changes in 2002 was conducted with a multi-s tage systematic PPS
cluster s ampling 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 6,064 survey districts in 3,600
townships (towns and urban neighborhood committees) in 981 counties (cities and dis tricts ) of the 31 provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities. The weighted es timation procedure suggested that the birth rate was 12.86 per
thousand, the death rate was 6.41 per thousand and the natural growth rate was 6.45 per thousand for China in 2002. Based
on these rates , it was further es timated that China had a total population of 1,284.53 million at the end of 2002, with 16.47
million births, 8.21 million deaths and a net increase of 8.26 million people during the year.

IV. Population enumerated in the 2000 population census refers to people with citizenship of, and with permanent res idence
in the People's Republic of China. The principle of de jure population was adopted in the population census, i.e. everyone
should be enumerated at his/her permanent res idence and one person is enumerated only at one place. The reference time
of the census is zero hour of November 1, 2000.

Data of the 2000 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 adjus tment.