The official number of China population today is considered to be around 1.3 billion in which around 150 million are above the age of 60.
By the year 2030, official population forecasts are predicting that India will surpass China and become the world’s most populated county. For now, China is the largest and most populated country in the world and the government is trying to successfully apply policies that keep a moderate growth rate.
The population of China began to significantly increase during and after the reign of the Ming dynasty when the numbers were below the 100 million line. During the following Qing dynasty, (1749) it has already reached 200 million and for the next 300 years a 5 time’s increase was a fact. This is the most rapid progression in population growth any nation had so far in its history.
The famine in 1958 and the Taiping rebellion have taken the staggering 50 million lives altogether. Many people died in the Second World War. And it happened in a period when the Chinese were roughly still doubling their population total every century! Those 50 million were just a fraction compared to the total number of population. So this horrible death count will go down as one sad statistical chart.
The two fold increase during Ming and Qing can be explained with the quick growth and development of agriculture where most of the population was involved in it. People moved from rarely populated areas to big cities and this resulted in economic growth, as well as massive overpopulation and the cities were overcrowded very soon after.
This population boost was followed by the introduction of new crops that came from America and Europe. The improved ways of irrigation also helped the Chinese improve their lives, and thus their life expectancy. One very interesting fact is that China began to double and triple its population way before its industrial revolution. No other country doubled its population that early in history and, of course, most other countries had their people increase in numbers at the same time modern technology was introduced.
The past two decades are considered to be a success of the Chinese government in putting population growth under control. The “one child policy” brought immediate results in reducing overall increase of growth but brought many controversies as well. In rural areas, inhabited mostly by minorities, this policy took time in getting enforced. This served as a strong demoralizing factor for the Chinese. China birth and death rate were reduced successfully to acceptable values in the ensuing years.
The most inhabited cities of China include Chonqing, Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu. In China, there are around 200 cities where the population is above 1 million. In Shanghai alone more than 50,000 people live per sq km area making it almost 2.5 times more densely populated than New York.
According to certain statistics the demographic profile of China is quite interesting. There are more men than women here. But according to another survey the females outnumber the males when they reach the age of 70!
