CHINA’S population on the mainland reached 1.41178 billion in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said yesterday, citing data from the seventh national census.

The figure does not include Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents and foreigners who live in the mainland’s 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, according to the NBS.

The latest population figure increased 72.06 million, or 5.38 percent, compared with the 1.33972 billion recorded in the previous census conducted a decade ago.

This represents an average annual growth rate of 0.53 percent from 2010 to 2020. The rate was slightly lower than the average annual growth of 0.57 percent from 2000 to 2010.

“Data shows that China’s population has continued to maintain slow growth in the past decade,” Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, told a press conference, adding that the country’s labor force remains abundant.

He noted that the growth will be affected by factors such as the age structure, people’s ideas on having children, the government’s population policies, the cost of childbearing and parenting, medical service, and health conditions of the people.

Guangdong and Shandong were the most and second-most populous provinces in China, with a population of approximately 126 million and 101 million, respectively. They were also the only two provinces whose population exceeded 100 million each.

In 2020, Guangdong ranked first in the country in population increase with 21.7 million, while Shandong ranked fourth with 5.73 million.

China’s working-age population, or people aged between 16 and 59, stood at 880 million, according to Ning.

The average age of the Chinese population was 38.8, almost the same as the United States’ 38, he said.

People aged 60 and above accounted for 18.7 percent of the total population, 5.44 percentage points higher than the level in the 2010 census.

Gender ratio of the mainland population reached 105.07 males to 100 females. It was slightly down from 105.2 in 2010.

The population of ethnic minority groups increased 10.26 percent to 125.47 million from 2010, while that of Han Chinese grew 4.93 percent to 1.28631 billion, accounting for 91.11 percent of the total, the data showed.

The proportion was up 0.4 percentage points from 2010, according to the data.

The urban population on the mainland totaled 901.99 million, representing 63.89 percent of the total. The proportion of urban population was 14.21 percentage points higher than the figure for 2010. The rural population stood at 509.79 million, down by 164.36 million from the 2010 figure.

Ning said the slight decrease in the annual growth rate was a result of mixed factors, including a continued drop in the number of women of childbearing age, couples delaying having children and the rising cost of childbearing and parenting.

(Continued on P4)