Population

    China is the most populous country in the world, with 1.27627 billion people at the end of 2001, one fifth of the world¡¯s total. This figure does not include the Chinese living in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and Taiwan Province.

    From the 1970s, China had implemented the policy of population increment control and thus the birth rate began to decrease. By 2000, the annual rate of population growth had decreased to less than 17 per thousand. At present, China basically turned into the type of population reproduction in low birth, death and increase.  By 2010 the population of China will not have exceeded 1.4 billion.

Enthnic Group

¡¡¡¡China is a united multi-ethnic nation of 56 ethnic groups. As the majority of the population is of the Han ethnic group (accounting for 91.6 percent of the national total population), China¡¯s other 55 ethnic groups are customarily referred to as the national minorities. The national minorities which have a population of over one million include the Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uygur, Yi, Tujia, Mongolian, Tibetan, Bouyei, Dong, Yao, Korean, Bai, Hani, Li, Kazak and Dai, totaling 18 ethnic groups. Among them the Zhuang ethnic group has the biggest population of 15.556 million. There are 15 ethnic groups with a population of between 100,000 and one million, including She, Lisu, Gelo, Lahu, Dongxiang, Va, Shui, Naxi, Qiang, Tu, Xibe, Mulam, Kirgiz, Daur and Jingpo. And 22 ethnic groups have a population of between 10,000 and 100,000: Salar, Blang, Maonan, Tajik, Pumi, Achang, Nu, Ewenki, Jing, Jino, Deang, Ozbek, Russian, Yugur, Bonan, Moinba, Oroqen, Drung, Tatar, Hezhen, Gaoshan (excluding the population of the Gaoshan ethnic group in Taiwan) and Lhoba. The Lhoba ethnic group has the smallest population, with less than 3,000.