Forms of Chinese census he been held since antiquity and throughout the imperial period. Modern censuses under the Republic and People's Republic of China were initially irregular. From 1990, the National Population Census of the People's Republic of China has been held decennially at the end of each decade.
Censuses of Imperial China[edit]Full censuses were held irregularly under imperial China, although local headmen were normally required to maintain accurate running counts of nearby households to meet tax and corvee obligations in a fair manner.[1] The census then consisted of prefectural, provincial, and national officials systematically gathering, computing, and recording the tallies held by lower levels of the administration.[2]
Much of the census held by the Western Han in AD 2 was preserved in its dynastic history, the Book of Han,[3] and it is held by modern scholars to he been quite accurate.[4][5][6] On that occasion, taking only taxable families into account to calculate proper revenue and ailable soldiers,[5] the empire was reckoned to he 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households. From that time to end of the Qing in 1911, 104 national censuses were conducted, roughly one every 15 years outside of prolonged periods of instability from 158–262 during the late Han and Three Kingdoms periods, from 371–463 during the late Jin and early Northern and Southern dynasties, and from 847–958 during the late Tang and early Five Dynasties.[7] Of those 104 censuses, 54 included both individual and household totals, producing erage household sizes of 5–6 individuals.[8]
A Tang census in 742 reported the population of the prefecture around the capital Chang'an as nearly 2 million. The city itself was said to he around a million people within its walls.
Censuses of the Republic of China[edit]The Republic of China never held a full national census during its period of control over mainland China.[9] Based on surveys, however, it released a number of official population figures from its Ministry of Home Affairs and its Ministry of the Interior:
Official ROC Population Estimates Year Made Population(Mainland China only) 1912 405,800,000 1928 441,800,000 1931 474,780,000 1936 471,100,000 1947 461,000,000Based on the more complete and apparently accurate 1953 PRC census, the earlier ROC enumerations are now considered to he significantly undercounted the Chinese population since the differences involved would otherwise indicate an extremely improbable growth rate throughout World War II and the Chinese Civil War and an impossible growth rate in the late 1940s.[10]
Censuses of the People's Republic of China[edit]Under Mao Zedong, the People's Republic of China held its first census in 1952, but—owing to the disruption created by various policies of the Great Leap Forward—the second in 1963 was secret and unacknowledged until the early 1980s.
The 1982 Chinese census was much more thorough and well-conducted than the first two, and similar censuses he been conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics in 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020.[11] These are the world's biggest censuses and over 6 million enumerators were engaged in the 2000[citation needed] and 2010 censuses.
Between the national censuses, 1% National Population Sample Surveys were taken in 1987, 1995, and 2005; 0.1% National Population Sample Surveys he been taken annually since 2000.[12] National agricultural, economic, and industrial censuses are also taken on a regular basis. The first economic census was taken in 2004 and the second 2008.[13]
Topline PRC Census Figures No. Year Completed Population(Mainland China only) Article 1st 1953 582,603,417 1953 Chinese census 2nd 1964 694,581,759 1964 Chinese census 3rd 1982 1,008,180,738 1982 Chinese census 4th 1990 1,133,683,417 1990 Chinese census 5th 2000 1,245,110,826 2000 Chinese census 6th 2010 1,339,724,852 2010 Chinese census 7th 2020 1,411,778,724 2020 Chinese census See also[edit] China microcensus National Bureau of Statistics of China References[edit] ^ Deng, Kent G. (July 2003), Fact or Fiction? Re-examination of Chinese Premodern Population Statistics (PDF), Working Paper, No. 76/03, London: Department of Economic History, London School of Economics, pp. 11–13 & 27–28. ^ Deng (2003), pp. 12–13. ^ Robert Hymes (2000). John Stewart Bowman (ed.). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. Columbia University Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-231-11004-4. ^ Twitchett, D., Loewe, M., and Fairbank, J.K. Cambridge History of China: The Ch'in and Han Empires 221 B.C.–A.D. 220. Cambridge University Press (1986), p. 240. ^ a b Nishijima (1986), pp. 595–96. sfnp error: no target: CITEREFNishijima1986 (help) ^ Yoon, H. (1985). "An early Chinese idea of a dynamic environmental cycle". GeoJournal. 10 (2): 211–12. Bibcode:1985GeoJo..10..211Y. doi:10.1007/bf00150742. S2CID 189888642. ^ Deng (2003), p. 11. ^ Deng (2003), pp. 68–72. ^ Ge Jianxiong (2024), A Concise History of China's Population, China Perspectives, Abingdon: Routledge, p. 247. ^ Ge (2024), pp. 247–249. ^ 中华人民共和国国家统计局 >> 人口普查公报 (in Chinese). Stats.gov.cn. Archived from the original on March 9, 2011. Retrieved November 30, 2010. ^ "李克强主持召开人口普查领导小组会议时强调 把握我国基本国情 促进可持续发展". Stats.gov.cn. December 21, 2009. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved 2010-11-30. ^ "Communiqué on Major Data of the Second National Economic Census (No.1)". Stats.gov.cn. December 25, 2009. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved 2010-11-30. vteNational Population Census of the People's Republic of China First (1953) Second (1964) Third (1982) Fourth (1990) Fifth (2000) Sixth (2010) Seventh (2020) China microcensus See also: National Bureau of Statistics of China vteFamily planning policies and population of ChinaCommission National Population and Family Planning Commission → National Health and Family Planning Commission → National Health Commission Policy One-child policy Two-child policy Three-child policy Term Only child Shidu (bereement) Events Childless Hundred Days Forced abortion of Feng Jianmei Population Demographics List of administrative divisions by population Population history National Population Census Sex ratio List of administrative divisions by sex ratio Son preference Female infanticide Missing women Other List of administrative divisions by infant mortality Abortion