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.

The GIS map layer include the county boundary map with comparable variables from 2000 and 2010 population census data;

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.

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.

The graph shows the population growth in China from 2000 to 2024. In 2024, the Chinese population decreased by about 0.1 percent or 1.39 million to around 1.408 billion people. Declining population growth in China Due to strict birth control measures by the Chinese government as well as changing family and work situations of the Chinese people, population growth has subsided over the past decades. Although the gradual abolition of the one-child policy from 2014 on led to temporarily higher birth figures, growth rates further decreased in recent years. As of 2024, leading countries in population growth could almost exclusively be found on the African continent and the Arabian Peninsula. Nevertheless, as of mid 2024, Asia ranked first by a wide margin among the continents in terms of absolute population. Future development of Chinese population The Chinese population reached a maximum of 1,412.6 million people in 2021 but decreased by 850,000 in 2022 and another 2.08 million in 2023. Until 2022, China had still ranked the world’s most populous country, but it was overtaken by India in 2023. Apart from the population decrease, a clear growth trend in Chinese cities is visible. By 2024, around 67 percent of Chinese people lived in urban areas, compared to merely 36 percent in 2000.

It has been shown that the human genome contains extensive copy number variations (CNVs). Investigating the medical and evolutionary impacts of CNVs requires the knowledge of locations, sizes and frequency distribution of them within and between populations. However, CNV study of Chinese minorities, which harbor the majority of genetic diversity of Chinese populations, has been underrepresented considering the same efforts in other populations. Here we constructed, to our knowledge, a first CNV map in seven Chinese populations representing the major linguistic groups in China with 1,440 CNV regions identified using Affymetrix SNP 6.0 Array. Considerable differences in distributions of CNV regions between populations and substantial population structures were observed. We showed that ∼35% of CNV regions identified in minority ethnic groups are not shared by Han Chinese population, indicating that the contribution of the minorities to genetic architecture of Chinese population could not be ignored. We further identified highly differentiated CNV regions between populations. For example, a common deletion in Dong and Zhuang (44.4% and 50%), which overlaps two keratin-associated protein genes contributing to the structure of hair fibers, was not observed in Han Chinese. Interestingly, the most differentiated CNV deletion between HapMap CEU and YRI containing CCL3L1 gene reported in previous studies was also the highest differentiated regions between Tibetan and other populations. Besides, by jointly analyzing CNVs and SNPs, we found a CNV region containing gene CTDSPL were in almost perfect linkage disequilibrium between flanking SNPs in Tibetan while not in other populations except HapMap CHD. Furthermore, we found the SNP taggability of CNVs in Chinese populations was much lower than that in European populations. Our results suggest the necessity of a full characterization of CNVs in Chinese populations, and the CNV map we constructed serves as a useful resource in further evolutionary and medical studies.

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.

DVD of geospatial and tabular datasets containing harmonized 2000-2010 census data at the city (prefecture) level, as well as administrative boundaries, hydrography, railways, and roads. Consult metadata for list of variables and projection parameters.

Available at the Map and Data Library. DVD #465.

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.

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).

In 2023, the district of the Beijing municipality with the highest resident population density was Xicheng district, with an average of 21,749 people living on one square kilometer. The average density of the population of the Beijing municipality in total was 1,332 people per square kilometer in 2023.

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 point shapefile represents the locations of townships with 2000 Population Census Data, 9.95% Long Form data, table L1-L6) for the Jilin Sheng province of China for 2000. These data are represented at 1:1,000,000 scale. This layer is part of the China 2000 township population census dataset.The 2000 China township maps are developed for matching 2000 China population Census data, which should only be used as references for research or education instead of used as official maps.

This layer shows the Hong Kong population density in 2021 Population Census. It is a subset of the census data 2021 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 point shapefile represents the prefecture city locations, with 2000 population census data, for the Guangxi Zhuangzu Zizhiqu province of China for 2000. These data are represented at 1:1,000,000 scale. This layer is part of the China 2000 township population census dataset.The 2000 China township maps are developed for matching 2000 China population Census data, which should only be used as references for research or education instead of used as official maps.

This web map shows the Hong Kong Population Distribution by Ethnicity 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 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 Population distribution by household sizes 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 data contains a geospatial population raster layer in GeoTIFF format with 1*1 km resolution for 31 provincial regions (2851 counties) of China in 2018 (pop2018.tif). It also provides the Tencent positioning data in 2018 (TN_hSum2018.tif), the table of statistical population of 2851 counties (statistical_population_2018_china_county.xls) and its vector map (statisitcal_pop.shp) and codes (code.docx).

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.