China, the world’s most populous country and home to the oldest continuing civilization, has been currently experiencing rapid socio-economic changes and is becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
Although the country’s population growth rate has been slowing since the early 1990s, with 4.95 per 1,000 people in 2012 compared to 11.21 per 1,000 people in 1994, China’s population is still steadily increasing due to the large base. By the end of 2012, the total population of China has reached 1.354 billion people, increasing by 155 million from 1.198 billion in 1994. Demographic trends in China have experienced significant shifts over the past 50 years in terms of declining fertility rate, imbalance in the sex ratio of newborns, population aging, and increasing migration. Variations and inequities exist in terms of background characteristics of rural-urban areas, population groups, education, wealth, and geography.
