The world's most populous country has successfully held back its population growth with a natural increase rate of under 1 percent in the past five years, a situation which has had a positive effect on China's economic and social development.
The latest report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the natural increase rate of China's population had dropped to 0.97 percent in the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996- 2000) from 1.156 percent in the previous five-year period. It was 2.583 percent in the early 1970s.
Estimates show China's population would by now be 1.5 billion if the country had not adopted the one-child policy in the 1970s, analysts here noted. The reduction of more 200 million people in China during the last two decades has enabled a three-year postponement for the world to have 6 billion people.
The central government has said the family planning program should operate in step with the work of economic development, poverty elimination, environmental protection, education promotion and health care.
The sharp fall of China's birthrate has benefited the country economically. The GDP per capita in 1999 rose to 6,534 yuan (787 U. S. dollars), 35 percent up over that in 1995. Insiders say that the increase is largely attributed to the lower birthrate.
Meanwhile, the lower population growth rate means more food to go around for all Chinese. The grain output per capita has reached 407 kilograms, 28 kilograms more than in the Eighth Five-Year Plan period (1991-1995). At the end of the 20th century, the world's most populous country was able to feed its large population.
The NBS report pointed to the improvement of health as a hallmark of the past five years. With a mortality rate of about 0. 65 percent, the country last year reported an average life expectancy of 71 years, nearly one year more than that of 1995. The 74-year-old life expectancy of Chinese women is nine years more than that promoted by the United Nations.
The improved education condition is another feature in the population development over the Ninth Five-Year Plan period. Twenty-eight out of every 1,000 Chinese in 1999 had received higher education, while the figure in 1995 was 20. The number of people with senior middle school education increased from 82 to 99. The Nine-Year Compulsory Education covering primary school and junior middle school helped more Chinese to receive primary schooling.
(People's Daily 03/07/2001)
