DECIPHERING DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

he much-anticipated answer to a very important question came on May 11 as the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced the results of the seventh national population census. In the past decade, China’s population growth slowed down, yet remained steady, according to NBS Commissioner Ning Jizhe. In 2020, the total population on the mainland was more than 1.41 billion, approximately accounting for 18 percent of the world’s total.

“China is still the world’s most populous country,” Ning said at a press conference. The population is predicted to remain above 1.4 billion for a period of time, he added.

The census, a roughly once-in-adecade event, kicked off on November 1, 2020, and information was collected door to door by approximately 7 million census takers. According to the NBS, an estimated 0.05 percent was left out of the census by error and was not added back into the count.

Before the release of the census results, there was