they have better opportunities to communicate with other groups and are
also enjoying better living conditions.
While the minorities of the Sino-Tibetan language family are thus
concentrated in the south and south-west, the second major language family
the Altaic is represented entirely by minorities in north-western and
northern China. The Altaic family falls into three branches: Turkic,
Mongolian, and Manchu-Tungus. The Turkic language branch is by far the most
numerous of the three Altaic branches. The Uighur, who are Muslims, form
the largest Turkic minority. They are distributed over chains of oases in
the Tarim Basin and in the Dzungarian Basin of Sinkiang. They mainly depend
on irrigation agriculture for a livelihood. Other Turkic minorities in
Sinkiang are splinter groups of nationalities living in neighbouring
nations of Central Asia, including the Kazakh and Kyrgyz. All these groups
are adherents of Islam. The Kazakh and Kyrgyz are pastoral nomadic peoples,
still showing traces of tribal organisation. The Kazakh live mainly in
north-western and north-eastern Sinkiang as herders, retiring to their
camps in the valleys when winter comes; they are established in the 1-li-ha-
sa-k'o (Hi Kazakh) Autonomous Prefecture. The Kyrgyz are high-mountain
pastoralists and are concentrated mainly in the westernmost part of
Sinkiang.
The Mongolians, who are by nature a nomadic people are the most widely
dispersed of the minority nationalities of China. Most of them are
inhabitants of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Small Mongolian and
Mongolian-related groups of people are scattered throughout the vast area
from Sinkiang through Tsinghai and Kansu and into the provinces of the
Northeast (Kirin, Heilungkiang, and Liaoning). In addition to the Inner
Mongolia Autonomous Region, the Mongolians are established in two
autonomous prefectures in Sinkiang, a joint autonomous prefecture with
Tibetans and Kazakh in Tsinghai, and several autonomous counties in the
western area of the Northeast. Some of them retain their tribal divisions
and are pastoralists, but large numbers of Mongolians engage in sedentary
agriculture, and some of them combine the growing of crops with herding.
The tribes, who are dependent upon animal husbandry, travel each year
around the pastureland—grazing sheep, goats, horses, cattle, and camels—and
then return to their point of departure. A few take up hunting and fur
trapping in order to supplement their income. The Mongolian language
consists of several dialects, but in religion it is a unifying force; most
Mongolians are believers in Tibetan Buddhism. A few linguistic minorities
in China belong to neither the Sino-Tibetan nor the Altaic language family.
The Tajik of westernmost Sinkiang are related to the population of
Tajikistan and belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family.
The Kawa people of the China-Burma border area belong to the Mon-Khmer
branch of the Austro-Asiatic family.
POPULATION GROWTH
Historical records show that, as long ago as 800 вс, in the early years
of the Chou dynasty, China was already inhabited by about 13,700,000
people. Until the last years The census of the Hsi (Western) Han dynasty,
about ad 2, comparatively accurate and complete registers of population
were kept, and the total population in that year was given as 59,600,000.
This first Chinese census was intended mainly as a preparatory step toward
the levy of a poll tax. Many members of the population, aware that a census
might work to their disadvantage, managed to avoid reporting; this explains
why all subsequent population figures were unreliable until 1712. In that
year the Emperor declared that an increased population would not be subject
to tax; population figures thereafter gradually became more accurate.
During the later years of the Pei (Northern) Sung dynasty, in the early
12th century, when China was already in the heyday of its economic and
cultural development, the total population began to exceed 100,000,000.
Later, uninterrupted and large-scale invasions from the north reduced the
country's population. When national unification returned with the advent of
the Ming dynasty, the census was at first strictly conducted. The
population of China, according to a registration compiled in 1381, was
quite close to the one registered in ad 2.
From the 15th century onward, the population increased steadily; this
increase was interrupted by wars and natural disasters in the mid-17th
century and slowed by the internal strife and foreign invasions in the
century that preceded the Communist takeover in 1949. During the 18th
century China enjoyed a lengthy period of peace and prosperity,
characterized by continual territorial expansion and an accelerating
population increase. In 1762 China had a population of more than
200,000.000. and by 1834 the population had doubled. It should be noted
that during this period there was no concomitant increase in the amount of
cultivable land; from this time on. land hunger became a growing problem.
After 1949 sanitation and medical care greatly improved, epidemics were
brought under control, and the younger generation became much healthier.
Public hygiene also improved, resulting in a death rate that declined
faster than the birth rate and a rate of population growth that speeded up
again. Population reached 1,000.000.000 in the early 1980s.
Now China has a population of 1,295.33 million. Compared with the
population of 1,133.68 million from the 1990 population census (with zero
hour of July 1, 1990 as the reference time), the total population of the 31
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and the servicemen of the
mainland of China increased by 132.15 million persons, or 11.66 percent
over the past 10 years and 4 months. The average annual growth was 12.79
million persons, or a growth rate of 1.07 percent.
The continually growing population poses major problems for the
government. Faced with difficulties in obtaining an adequate food supply
and in combating the generally low standard of living, the authorities
sponsored Drive a drive for birth control in 1955-58. A second attempt at
for birth population control began in 1962, when advocacy of late control
marriages and the use of contraceptives became prominent parts of
the program. The outbreak of the Cultural Revolution interrupted this
second family-planning drive, but in 1970 a third and much stricter program
was initiated. This program attempted to make late marriage and family
limitation obligatory, and it culminated in 1979 in efforts to implement a
policy of one child per family.
Other developments affected the rate of population growth more than the
first two official family-planning campaigns. For example, although family
planning had been rejected by Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong
(Mao Tse-tung) in 1958, the Great Leap Forward that he initiated in that
year (see below The economy) caused a massive famine that resulted in more
deaths than births and a reduction of population in 1960. By 1963 recovery
from the famine produced the highest rate of population increase since
1949, at more than 3 percent, although the second birth-control campaign
had already begun.
Since the initiation of the third family-planning program in 1970,
however, state efforts have been much more effective. China's population
growth rate is now unusually low for a developing country, although the
huge size of its population still results in a large annual net population
growth.
Below I described the distribution of China’s population by different
characteristics.
I. Sex Composition.
Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 653.55 million
persons or 51.63 percent were males, while 612.28 million persons or 48.37
percent were females. The sex ratio (female=100) was 106.74.
?
II. Age Composition.
Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 289.79 million
persons were in the age group of 0-14, accounting for 22.89 percent of the
total population; 887.93 million persons in the age group of 15-64,
accounting for 70.15 percent and 88.11 million persons in the age group of
65 and over, accounting for 6.96 percent. As compared with the results of
the 1990 population census, the share of people in the age group of 0-14
was down by 4.80 percentage points, and that for people aged 65 and over
was up by 1.39 percentage points.
?
III. Composition of Nationalities.
Of the people enumerated in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and
municipalities and servicemen of the mainland of China, 1,159.40 million
persons or 91.59 percent were of Han nationality, and 106.43 million
persons or 8.41 percent were of various national minorities. Compared with
the 1990 population census, the population of Han people increased by
116.92 million persons, or 11.22 percent; while the population of various
national minorities increased by 15.23 million persons, or 16.70 percent.
?
IV. Composition of Educational Attainment.
Of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen
of the mainland of China, 45.71 million persons had finished university
