POPULATION

BRIEF INTRODUCTION

I. The data in this chapter show the basic conditions of China’s population in 1998 and the previous years, including the main data of population statistics of the whole nation and 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, such as the national population total, urban population total and rural population total over the years, the population total, birth rate, mortality, natural growth rate, dependency ratio, household size and the educational level of the urban households in 1998 by region, etc. In addition, a comparison is made among the main data of the four population censuses undertaken after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

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II. The 12 tables in this chapter are prepared and provided by the Department of Population, Social and Science Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics. Among them, the figures of 1982-1989 in Tables 4-1, 4-2 have been adjusted in accordance with the data of the population censuses of 1982 and 1990. The data after 1990 are estimated on the basis of the data collected from the sample surveys on population changes. The data of other years are data collected from the residence registration. The Table 4-4 covers the main data of the four population censuses. The data in Tables from 4-5 to 4-12 are obtained from the sample survey on population changes in 1998.

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III. A stratified, systematic and cluster probability sampling scheme was used in the sample survey on population changes in 1998, with the whole country as the universe. In 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, 1.24million persons in 5094 enumeration areas in 3174 townships (towns, sub-districts) in 852 counties (cities, districts) were enumerated in the sample survey.

The absolute figures in tables from 4-5 to 4-12 in this part are figures of the sample. The national sampling fraction was 1.01�.