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.

In 2023, approximately 127.1 million people lived in Guangdong province in China. That same year, only about 3.65 million people lived in the sparsely populated highlands of Tibet. Regional differences in China China is the world’s most populous country, with an exceptional economic growth momentum. The country can be roughly divided into three regions: Western, Eastern, and Central China. Western China covers the most remote regions from the sea. It also has the highest proportion of minority population and the lowest levels of economic output. Eastern China, on the other hand, enjoys a high level of economic development and international corporations. Central China lags behind in comparison to the booming coastal regions. In order to accelerate the economic development of Western and Central Chinese regions, the PRC government has ramped up several incentive plans such as ‘Rise of Central China’ and ‘China Western Development’. Economic power of different provinces When observed individually, some provinces could stand an international comparison. Jiangxi province, for example, a medium-sized Chinese province, had a population size comparable to Argentina or Spain in 2023. That year, the GDP of Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province, even exceeded the economic output of the Netherlands. In terms of per capita annual income, the municipality of Shanghai reached a level close to that of the Czech Republik. Nevertheless, as shown by the Gini Index, China’s economic spur leaves millions of people in dust. Among the various kinds of economic inequality in China, regional or the so-called coast-inland disparity is one of the most significant. Posing as evidence for the rather large income gap in China, the poorest province Heilongjiang had a per capita income similar to that of Sri Lanka that year.

This Web Map shows the Hong Kong Population Distribution Able to Read and Write Chinese and English by Large Tertiary Planning Unit Group in 2021. It is a subset of the 2021 Population Census made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the "Government") at https://portal.csdi.gov.hk ("CSDI Portal"). The source data is in CSV format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of CSDI Portal at https://portal.csdi.gov.hk.

This layer shows the Hong Kong Population Distribution Able to Read and Write Chinese and English by Large TPU in 2016. It is a subset of the census data 2016 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLSX format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

The China County-Level Data on Population (Census) and Agriculture, Keyed To 1:1M GIS Map consists of census, agricultural economic, and boundary data for the administrative regions of China for 1990. The census data includes urban and rural residency, age and sex distribution, educational attainment, illiteracy, marital status, childbirth, mortality, immigration (since 1985), industrial/economic activity, occupation, and ethnicity. The agricultural economic data encompasses rural population, labor force, forestry, livestock and fishery, commodities, equipment, utilities, irrigation, and output value. The boundary data are at a scale of one to one million (1:1M) at the county level. This data set is produced in collaboration with the University of Washington as part of the China in Time and Space (CITAS) project, University of California-Davis China in Time and Space (CITAS) project, and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN).

This web map shows the population distribution by quinquennial age group 2001 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2001 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in CSV format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of Data.gov.hk at https://data.gov.hk.

This web map shows the Population distribution by quinquennial age group 2006 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2006 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLS format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

This web map shows the Hong Kong Population Distribution Able to Read and Write Chinese and English by 18 districts in 2021. It is a subset of the 2021 Population Census made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the "Government") at https://portal.csdi.gov.hk ("CSDI Portal"). The source data is in CSV format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of CSDI Portal at https://portal.csdi.gov.hk.

This web map shows the Population distribution by quarter type in 2016 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2016 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLSX format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

This web map shows the Working population distribution by industry in 2016 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2016 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in CSV format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

Auxiliary Data.gdb: Land_use: original land use data POI_name: interests-point-data from the Amap platform (name indicates category)

New_gridded_population_dataset(.gdb): experimental result data, i.e., a gridded population map of mainland China with a resolution of 100 meters

New_minus_WorldPop_PopulationResidual(.gdb): pixel-level residuals of the new gridded population dataset with the Worldpop dataset

POI_Correlation_Coefficient: Zonal statistical output of POI kernel density values: summary of various POI kernel densities in residential areas of administrative units Summary of POI Pearson correlation coefficients: sum of Pearson's correlation coefficients for 13 types of POIs at a certain bandwidth

PopulationData_AdministrativeUnitLevel.gdb: Population_data_mainlandChina_level3: population data at the district and county level in mainland China Population_data_Name_level4_Table: township and street-level population data for provinces and municipalities

Note: Due to the storage space limitation, 3D building, nighttime light, and WorldPop datasets have not been uploaded. To access these publicly available data, please visit the official website via the "Related links" at the bottom. In addition, we are not authorized to share data for the fourth level of administrative boundaries, so we only share the corresponding population data in tabular form.

This web map shows the Population distribution by Ethnicity in 2016 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2016 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLSX format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

This web map shows the Working population distribution by occupation in 2016 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2016 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLSX format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

This web map shows the Population distribution by quarter type in 2001 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2001 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in CSV format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of Data.gov.hk at https://data.gov.hk.

In the middle of 2023, about 60 percent of the global population was living in Asia.The total world population amounted to 8.1 billion people on the planet. In other words 4.7 billion people were living in Asia as of 2023. Global populationDue to medical advances, better living conditions and the increase of agricultural productivity, the world population increased rapidly over the past century, and is expected to continue to grow. After reaching eight billion in 2023, the global population is estimated to pass 10 billion by 2060. Africa expected to drive population increase Most of the future population increase is expected to happen in Africa. The countries with the highest population growth rate in 2024 were mostly African countries. While around 1.47 billion people live on the continent as of 2024, this is forecast to grow to 3.9 billion by 2100. This is underlined by the fact that most of the countries wit the highest population growth rate are found in Africa. The growing population, in combination with climate change, puts increasing pressure on the world's resources.

This web map shows projected population distribution within the 18 districts of Hong Kong.

The spatial data is prepared based on the report of Projections of Population Distribution 2015-2024 published by the Planning Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the "Government") in their website: http://www.pland.gov.hk/. The source data is in XLS format and processed and converted to Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.

For details about the report of Projections of Population Distribution 2015-2024, related excel tables and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to http://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_en/info_serv/statistic/wgpd15.html.

This web map shows the Population distribution by Education attainment in 2016 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2016 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLSX format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

This web map shows the Population distribution by Ethnicity in 2011 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2011 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLSX format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.

For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.

Here we used remote sensing data from multiple sources (time-series of Landsat and Sentinel images) to map the impervious surface area (ISA) at five-year intervals from 1990 to 2015, and then converted the results into a standardized dataset of the built-up area for 433 Chinese cities with 300,000 inhabitants or more, which were listed in the United Nations (UN) World Urbanization Prospects (WUP) database (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). We employed a range of spectral indices to generate the 1990–2015 ISA maps in urban areas based on remotely sensed data acquired from multiple sources. In this process, various types of auxiliary data were used to create the desired products for urban areas through manual segmentation of peri-urban and rural areas together with reference to several freely available products of urban extent derived from ISA data using automated urban–rural segmentation methods. After that, following the well-established rules adopted by the UN, we carried out the conversion to the standardized built-up area products from the 1990–2015 ISA maps in urban areas, which conformed to the definition of urban agglomeration area (UAA). Finally, we implemented data postprocessing to guarantee the spatial accuracy and temporal consistency of the final product.The standardized urban built-up area dataset (SUBAD–China) introduced here is the first product using the same definition of UAA adopted by the WUP database for 433 county and higher-level cities in China. The comparisons made with contemporary data produced by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, the World Bank and UN-habitat indicate that our results have a high spatial accuracy and good temporal consistency and thus can be used to characterize the process of urban expansion in China.The SUBAD–China contains 2,598 vector files in shapefile format containing data for all China's cities listed in the WUP database that have different urban sizes and income levels with populations over 300,000. Attached with it, we also provided the distribution of validation points for the 1990–2010 ISA products of these 433 Chinese cities in shapefile format and the confusion matrices between classified data and reference data during different time periods as a Microsoft Excel Open XML Spreadsheet (XLSX) file.Furthermore, The standardized built-up area products for such cities will be consistently updated and refined to ensure the quality of their spatiotemporal coverage and accuracy. The production of this dataset together with the usage of population counts derived from the WUP database will close some of the data gaps in the calculation of SDG11.3.1 and benefit other downstream applications relevant to a combined analysis of the spatial and socio-economic domains in urban areas.

This web map shows the population distribution by quinquennial age group 2016 within the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is a subset of the census data 2016 made available by the Census and Statistics Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the “Government”) at https://DATA.GOV.HK/ (“DATA.GOV.HK”). The source data is in XLSX format and has been processed and converted into Esri File Geodatabase format and then uploaded to Esri’s ArcGIS Online platform for sharing and reference purpose. The objectives are to facilitate our Hong Kong ArcGIS Online users to use the data in a spatial ready format and save their data conversion effort.For details about the data, source format and terms of conditions of usage, please refer to the website of DATA.GOV.HK at https://data.gov.hk.