# Demographics

By [cora9981](https://paragraph.com/@cora9981) · 2021-10-29

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The [national census of 2010](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_National_Population_Census_of_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China) recorded the [population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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.[\[486\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-505) The population growth rate for 2013 is estimated to be 0.46%.[\[487\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-506) China used to make up much of the world's poor; now it makes up much of the world's middle class.[\[488\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-507) Although a middle-income country by Western standards, China's rapid growth has [pulled hundreds of millions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_in_China)—800 million, to be more precise[\[489\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-508)—of its people out of poverty since 1978. By 2013, less than 2% of the Chinese population lived below the international poverty line of US$1.9 per day, down from 88% in 1981.[\[347\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-:1-365) China's own standards for poverty are higher and still the country is on its way to eradicate national poverty completely by 2019.[\[490\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-509) From 2009 to 2018, the unemployment rate in China has averaged about 4%.[\[491\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-510)

Given concerns about population growth, China implemented a two-child limit during the 1970s, and, in 1979, began to advocate for an even stricter limit of one child per family. Beginning in the mid 1980s, however, given the unpopularity of the strict limits, China began to allow some major exemptions, particularly in rural areas, resulting in what was actually a "1.5"-child policy from the mid-1980s to 2015 (ethnic minorities were also exempt from one child limits). The next major loosening of the policy was enacted in December 2013, allowing families to have two children if one parent is an only child.[\[492\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-511) In 2016, the one-child policy was replaced in favor of a [two-child policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-child_policy).[\[493\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-512) Data from the 2010 census implies that the [total fertility rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_fertility_rate) may be around 1.4, although due to under-reporting of births it may be closer to 1.5–1.6.[\[494\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-513)

According to one group of scholars, one-child limits had little effect on population growth[\[495\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-Wang_Judge-514) or the size of the total population.[\[496\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-Whyte-515) However, these scholars have been challenged. Their own counterfactual model of fertility decline without such restrictions implies that China averted more than 500 million births between 1970 and 2015, a number which may reach one billion by 2060 given all the lost descendants of births averted during the era of fertility restrictions, with one-child restrictions accounting for the great bulk of that reduction.[\[497\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-516)

The policy, along with traditional preference for boys, may have contributed to an imbalance in the [sex ratio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sex_ratio) at birth.[\[498\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-517)[\[499\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-Ref_2007a-518) According to the 2010 census, the sex ratio at birth was 118.06 boys for every 100 girls,[\[500\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-genderratio-519) which is beyond the normal range of around 105 boys for every 100 girls.[\[501\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-520) The 2010 census found that males accounted for 51.27 percent of the total population.[\[500\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#cite_note-genderratio-519) However, China's sex ratio is more balanced than it was in 1953, when males accounted for 51.82 percent of the total population.

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*Originally published on [cora9981](https://paragraph.com/@cora9981/demographics)*