Demographics

Main article: Demographics of China

A 2009 population density map of the People's Republic of China. The eastern coastal provinces are much more densely populated than the western interior

The national census of 2010 recorded the population of the People's Republic of China as approximately 1,370,536,875. About 16.60% of the population were 14 years old or younger, 70.14% were between 15 and 59 years old, and 13.26% were over 60 years old.^[394] The population growth rate for 2013 is estimated to be 0.46%.^[395]
Although a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has pulled hundreds of millions of its people out of poverty since 1978. Today, about 10% of the Chinese population lives below the poverty line of US$1 per day, down from 64% in 1978. In 2014, the urban unemployment rate of China was about 4.1%.^[396][397]
With a population of over 1.3 billion and dwindling natural resources, the government of China is very concerned about its population growth rate and has attempted since 1979, with mixed results,^[398] to implement a strict family planning policy, known as the "one-child policy." Before 2013, this policy sought to restrict families to one child each, with exceptions for ethnic minorities and a degree of flexibility in rural areas. A major loosening of the policy was enacted in December 2013, allowing families to have two children if one parent is an only child.^[399] In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced in favor of a two-child policy.^[400] Data from the 2010 census implies that the total fertility rate may be around 1.4.^[401]

Population of China from 1949 to 2008^{[needs update]}

The policy, along with traditional preference for boys, may be contributing to an imbalance in the sex ratio at birth.^[402][403] According to the 2010 census, the sex ratio at birth was 118.06 boys for every 100 girls,^[404] which is beyond the normal range of around 105 boys for every 100 girls.^[405] The 2010 census found that males accounted for 51.27 percent of the total population.^[404] However, China's sex ratio is more balanced than it was in 1953, when males accounted for 51.82 percent of the total population.^[404]

Ethnic groups

Main articles: List of ethnic groups in China, Ethnic minorities in China, and Ethnic groups in Chinese history

A trilingual sign in Sibsongbanna, with Tai Lü language on the top.

China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.51% of the total population.^[10] The Han Chinese – the world's largest single ethnic group^[406] – outnumber other ethnic groups in every provincial-level division except Tibet and Xinjiang.^[407] Ethnic minorities account for about 8.49% of the population of China, according to the 2010 census.^[10] Compared with the 2000 population census, the Han population increased by 66,537,177 persons, or 5.74%, while the population of the 55 national minorities combined increased by 7,362,627 persons, or 6.92%.^[10] The 2010 census recorded a total of 593,832 foreign citizens living in China. The largest such groups were from South Korea (120,750), the United States (71,493) and Japan (66,159).^[408]