In 2023, Chaoyang district had the largest number of permanent residents among all districts of Beijing municipality, numbering around .344 million. The total number of inhabitants in the administrative area of Beijing municipality amounted to 21.86 million in 2023.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Beijing, China metro area from 1950 to 2025. United Nations population projections are also included through the year 2035.

In 2023, the average population density of Beijing municipality was 1,331 people per square kilometer, slightly less than in the previous year. Beijing municipality includes the city center and the relatively large urban area around the city. The population density in different districts of Beijing municipality varies greatly.

Population: Beijing data was reported at 23.018 Person th in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 22.372 Person th for 2022. Population: Beijing data is updated yearly, averaging 17.454 Person th from Dec 1982 (Median) to 2023, with 29 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 21,893.095 Person th in 2020 and a record low of 12.245 Person th in 1999. Population: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GA: Population: Sample Survey: By Region.

In 2023, around 21.86 million permanent residents were living in the administrative area of Beijing municipality. Back in 2017, the Beijing municipal government had announced plans to limit Beijing's population to 23 million by 2020 in order to mitigate the contradiction between rapid population growth and resource and environment restrictions.

Population: Age 15 to 64: Beijing data was reported at 15.764 Person th in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 16.290 Person th for 2022. Population: Age 15 to 64: Beijing data is updated yearly, averaging 14.031 Person th from Dec 1982 (Median) to 2023, with 29 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 16,389.528 Person th in 2020 and a record low of 9.156 Person th in 1999. Population: Age 15 to 64: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GA: Population: Sample Survey: By Age and Region.

Population: Beijing: Shunyi data was reported at 1,325.000 Person th in 2022. This records a decrease from the previous number of 1,326.000 Person th for 2021. Population: Beijing: Shunyi data is updated yearly, averaging 1,004.000 Person th from Dec 2006 (Median) to 2022, with 17 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,326.000 Person th in 2021 and a record low of 562.000 Person th in 2006. Population: Beijing: Shunyi data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GW: Population: Municipality District.

Population: Beijing: Tongzhou data was reported at 1,845.000 Person th in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,843.000 Person th for 2022. Population: Beijing: Tongzhou data is updated yearly, averaging 1,367.000 Person th from Dec 2006 (Median) to 2023, with 18 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,845.000 Person th in 2023 and a record low of 637.000 Person th in 2006. Population: Beijing: Tongzhou data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GW: Population: Municipality District.

In 2024, there were around 719 million male inhabitants and 689 million female inhabitants living in China, amounting to around 1.41 billion people in total. China's total population decreased for the first time in decades in 2022, and population decline is expected to accelerate in the upcoming years. Birth control in China From the beginning of the 1970s on, having many children was no longer encouraged in mainland China. The one-child policy was then introduced in 1979 to control the total size of the Chinese population. According to the one-child policy, a married couple was only allowed to have one child. With the time, modifications were added to the policy, for example parents living in rural areas were allowed to have a second child if the first was a daughter, and most ethnic minorities were excepted from the policy. Population ageing The birth control led to a decreasing birth rate in China and a more skewed gender ratio of new births due to boy preference. Since the negative economic and social effects of an aging population were more and more felt in China, the one-child policy was considered an obstacle for the country’s further economic development. Since 2014, the one-child policy has been gradually relaxed and fully eliminated at the end of 2015. However, many young Chinese people are not willing to have more children due to high costs of raising a child, especially in urban areas.

Population: Beijing: Household Registration data was reported at 14,312.385 Person th in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 14,277.092 Person th for 2022. Population: Beijing: Household Registration data is updated yearly, averaging 12,779.000 Person th from Dec 1999 (Median) to 2023, with 25 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 14,312.385 Person th in 2023 and a record low of 10,998.000 Person th in 1999. Population: Beijing: Household Registration data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GE: Population: Prefecture Level City.

As of 2023, the bulk of the Chinese population was aged between 25 and 59 years, amounting to around half of the population. A breakdown of the population by broad age groups reveals that around 61.3 percent of the total population was in working age between 16 and 59 years in 2023. Age cohorts below 25 years were considerably smaller, although there was a slight growth trend in recent years. Population development in China Population development in China over the past decades has been strongly influenced by political and economic factors. After a time of high fertility rates during the Maoist regime, China introduced birth-control measures in the 1970s, including the so-called one-child policy. The fertility rate dropped accordingly from around six children per woman in the 1960s to below two at the end of the 20th century. At the same time, life expectancy increased consistently. In the face of a rapidly aging society, the government gradually lifted the one-child policy after 2012, finally arriving at a three-child policy in 2021. However, like in most other developed countries nowadays, people in China are reluctant to have more than one or two children due to high costs of living and education, as well as changed social norms and private values. China’s top-heavy age pyramid The above-mentioned developments are clearly reflected in the Chinese age pyramid. The age cohorts between 30 and 39 years are the last two larger age cohorts. The cohorts between 15 and 24, which now enter childbearing age, are decisively smaller, which will have a negative effect on the number of births in the coming decade. When looking at a gender distribution of the population pyramid, a considerable gender gap among the younger age cohorts becomes visible, leaving even less room for growth in birth figures.

Population: Death Rate: Beijing data was reported at 0.613 % in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 0.572 % for 2022. Population: Death Rate: Beijing data is updated yearly, averaging 0.530 % from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2023, with 34 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.616 % in 1993 and a record low of 0.426 % in 2011. Population: Death Rate: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GA: Population: Death Rate: By Region.

In 2023, the total number of employees officially recorded in Beijing municipality in China amounted to approximately 10.28 million people. As the local government in Beijing in 2017 announced plans to limit the population in the city to 23 million until 2035, employment numbers will most probably not continue the relatively high growth trend from years before 2017.

Population: Resided more than Half Year: Beijing data was reported at 12.527 Person th in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 12.090 Person th for 2022. Population: Resided more than Half Year: Beijing data is updated yearly, averaging 8.621 Person th from Dec 1996 (Median) to 2023, with 26 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 13,409.576 Person th in 2020 and a record low of 1.838 Person th in 1998. Population: Resided more than Half Year: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GA: Population: Sample Survey: By Region.

China is a vast and diverse country and population density in different regions varies greatly. In 2023, the estimated population density of the administrative area of Shanghai municipality reached about 3,922 inhabitants per square kilometer, whereas statistically only around three people were living on one square kilometer in Tibet. Population distribution in China China's population is unevenly distributed across the country: while most people are living in the southeastern half of the country, the northwestern half – which includes the provinces and autonomous regions of Tibet, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, and Inner Mongolia – is only sparsely populated. Even the inhabitants of a single province might be unequally distributed within its borders. This is significantly influenced by the geography of each region, and is especially the case in the Guangdong, Fujian, or Sichuan provinces due to their mountain ranges. The Chinese provinces with the largest absolute population size are Guangdong in the south, Shandong in the east and Henan in Central China. Urbanization and city population Urbanization is one of the main factors which have been reshaping China over the last four decades. However, when comparing the size of cities and urban population density, one has to bear in mind that data often refers to the administrative area of cities or urban units, which might be much larger than the contiguous built-up area of that city. The administrative area of Beijing municipality, for example, includes large rural districts, where only around 200 inhabitants are living per square kilometer on average, while roughly 20,000 residents per square kilometer are living in the two central city districts. This is the main reason for the huge difference in population density between the four Chinese municipalities Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing shown in many population statistics.

Population: Inflow: Beijing data was reported at 208.854 Person th in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 139.923 Person th for 2022. Population: Inflow: Beijing data is updated yearly, averaging 189.703 Person th from Dec 2003 (Median) to 2023, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 216.078 Person th in 2005 and a record low of 129.061 Person th in 2017. Population: Inflow: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GE: Population: Prefecture Level City: Non-natural Change.

Population: Resided not yet Settled: Beijing data was reported at 0.037 Person th in 2023. This records a decrease from the previous number of 0.048 Person th for 2022. Population: Resided not yet Settled: Beijing data is updated yearly, averaging 0.051 Person th from Dec 1996 (Median) to 2023, with 27 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 120.250 Person th in 2010 and a record low of 0.026 Person th in 2018. Population: Resided not yet Settled: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GA: Population: Sample Survey: By Region.

Japan’s largest city, greater Tokyo, had a staggering 37.27 million inhabitants in 2022, making it the most populous city across the Asia-Pacific region. India had the second largest city after Japan with a population consisting of approximately 32 million inhabitants. Contrastingly, approximately 400 thousand inhabitants populated Papua New Guinea's largest city in 2022.

A megacity region Not only did Japan and India have the largest cities throughout the Asia-Pacific region but they were among the three most populated cities worldwide in 2023. Interestingly, over half on the world’s megacities were situated in the Asia-Pacific region. However, being home to more than half of the world’s population, it does not seem surprising that by 2025 it is expected that more than two thirds of the megacities across the globe will be located in the Asia Pacific region. Other megacities are also expected to emerge within the Asia-Pacific region throughout the next decade. There have even been suggestions that Indonesia’s Jakarta and its conurbation will overtake Greater Tokyo in terms of population size by 2030.

Increasing populations Increased populations in megacities can be down to increased economic activity. As more countries across the Asia-Pacific region have made the transition from agriculture to industry, the population has adjusted accordingly. Thus, more regions have experienced higher shares of urban populations. However, as many cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Seoul have an aging population, this may have an impact on their future population sizes, with these Asian regions estimated to have significant shares of the population being over 65 years old by 2035.

Population: Beijing: Fangshan data was reported at 1,312.000 Person th in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,311.000 Person th for 2022. Population: Beijing: Fangshan data is updated yearly, averaging 1,041.000 Person th from Dec 2006 (Median) to 2023, with 18 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 1,313.000 Person th in 2021 and a record low of 758.000 Person th in 2006. Population: Beijing: Fangshan data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GW: Population: Municipality District.

Population: Number of Marriages: Beijing data was reported at 137,335.000 Case in 2023. This records an increase from the previous number of 91,300.000 Case for 2022. Population: Number of Marriages: Beijing data is updated yearly, averaging 137,576.500 Case from Dec 1999 (Median) to 2023, with 24 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 181,771.000 Case in 2009 and a record low of 76,000.000 Case in 2002. Population: Number of Marriages: Beijing data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s Socio-Demographic – Table CN.GA: Population: No of Marriage and Divorce.