[General_Zhaoyun]

Demographics of mainland China

From: http://en.wikipedia...._Mainland_China

Population: 1,298,847,624 (July 2004 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 22.3% (male 153,401,051; female 135,812,993)
15-64 years: 70.3% (male 469,328,664; female 443,248,860)
65 years and over: 7.5% (male 46,308,923; female 50,747,133) (2004 est.)

Median age:
total: 31.8 years
male: 31.5 years
female: 32.2 years (2004 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.57% (2004 est.)

Birth rate: 12.98 births/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Death rate: 6.92 deaths/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Net migration rate: -0.4 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2004 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.12 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.13 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.91 male(s)/female
total population: 1.06 male(s)/female (2004 est.)

Infant mortality rate:
total: 25.28 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 21.84 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 29.14 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 71.96 years
male: 70.4 years
female: 73.72 years (2004 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.69 children born/woman (2004 est.)

Population Policy
With a population of over 1.3 billion and an estimated growth rate of 0.57%, the PRC is very concerned about its population growth and has attempted with mixed results to implement a strict family planning policy. The government's goal is one child per family, with exceptions in rural areas and for ethnic minorities. Official government policy opposes forced abortion or sterilization, but allegations of coercion continue as local officials strive to meet population targets. The government's goal is to stabilize the population early in the 21st century, although some current projections estimate a population of anywhere ranging from 1.4 billion to 1.6 billion by 2025.

Nationality:
noun: Chinese (singular and plural)
adjective: Chinese

Ethnic Groups

The People's Republic of China (PRC) officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups, the largest of which are Han Chinese, who constitute about 91.9% of the total population. Large ethnic minorities include the Zhuang (16 million), Manchu (10 million), Hui (9 million), Miao (8 million), Uighur (7 million), Yi (7 million), Tujia (5.75 million), Mongolian (5 million), Tibetan (5 million), Buyi (3 million), and Korean (2 million).

Religion

It is important to keep in mind that the majority of Chinese are non-religious. According to the World Desk Reference by D K Publishing, the non-religious in China constitute about 59% of the population, or about 767 million people. However, religion plays a significant part in the life of some Chinese, especially the traditional beliefs of Confucianism and Taoism. About 33% of the population follow a mixture of beliefs usually referred to by statisticians as "Traditional Beliefs" or just "Other".

About 6% of Chinese people are avowed Buddhists. Mahayana Buddhism is most widely practiced. With an estimated 100 million adherents, it is the largest religiuous group in the country. Theravada Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism are practiced largely by ethnic minorities along the geographic fringes of the Chinese mainland. Official figures indicate there are 18 million (mostly Sunni) Muslims, 4 million Catholics, and 10 million Protestants; estimates by outside followers of these beliefs for all three demographic groups are much higher.

The PRC Constitution affirms religious toleration subject to several important restrictions. Consistent with these restrictions, the PRC Government places restrictions on religious practice outside officially recognized organizations. Only two Christian organizations--a Catholic church without ties to Rome and the "Three-Self-Patriotic" Protestant church--are sanctioned by the PRC Government. Unauthorized churches have sprung up in many parts of the country, and unofficial religious practice is flourishing. In some regions authorities have tried to control activities of these unregistered churches. In other regions registered and unregistered groups are treated similarly by authorities, and congregates worship in both types of churches.

In 1999, the PRC government banned the Falun Gong spiritual movement and has since implemented a crackdown on the movement. Reliable reports indicate that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners are in re-education through labor camps; hundreds are in prisons or psychiatric facilities. More than 200 practitioners reportedly have died in prison as a result of mistreatment and torture.

For distribution of religions in minority nationalities, see List of Chinese ethnic groups.

Language

Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, Hakka dialects, minority languages (see Ethnic groups entry).

There are seven major Chinese dialects and many sub dialects which are considered part of the Chinese language. Mandarin (or Putonghua), the predominant dialect, is spoken by over 70% of the population. It is taught in all schools and is the medium of government. About two-thirds of the Han ethnic group are native speakers of Mandarin; the rest, concentrated in southwest and southeast China, speak one of the six other major Chinese dialects. Non-Chinese languages spoken widely by ethnic minorities include Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur and other Turkic languages (in Xinjiang), and Korean (in the northeast).

The Pinyin System of Romanization
On January 1, 1979, the PRC Government officially adopted the pinyin system for spelling Chinese names and places in Roman letters. A system of Romanization invented by the Chinese, pinyin has long been widely used in mainland China on street and commercial signs as well as in elementary Chinese textbooks as an aid in learning Chinese characters. Variations of pinyin also are used as the written forms of several minority languages.

Pinyin replaced other conventional spellings in mainland China's English-language publications. The U.S. Government also adopted the pinyin system for all names and places in mainland China. For example, the capital of the PRC is spelled "Beijing" rather than "Peking."

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 90.9%
male: 95.1%
female: 86.5% (2002)


Demographics of China, Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.


Economic reforms have triggered internal migrations within China.



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Demographics of Taiwan

From: http://en.wikipedia....phics_of_Taiwan

Taiwan's population was estimated in 2005 as being 22.9 million. About 98 percent of the largely population is of Han Chinese ethnicity. Of these, 84 percent are early Han immigrants referred to as Bensheng ren, which themselves are broken into two groups. These are the Hakka (15 percent of the total population), whose ancestors came from Guangdong Province are concentrated surrounding areas throughout Taiwan with extensive intermarriage with Taiwanese aborigines, and the Southern Fujianese (70 percent of the total population), who migrated from the coastal Southern Fujian region in the southeast of mainland China. The remaining 14 percent of Han Chinese are the later immigrants, referred to as Waisheng ren ("Mainlanders"). This group fled mainland China in 1949 following the Nationalist defeat in the Chinese Civil War.

The other two percent of Taiwan's population, numbering about 440,000, is the indigenous people, divided into 12 major groups: Amis, Atayal, Paiwan, Bunun, Puyuma, Rukai, Tsou, Saisiyat, Yami, Thao, Truku, and Kavalan.

Almost everyone on Taiwan born after the early 1950s can speak Mandarin, which has been the medium of instruction in the schools for more than four decades. A large fraction of people also speak one of the Southern Fujianese dialects, Min-nan, also known as Taiwanese. The Hakka have a distinct Hakka dialect. Between 1900 and 1945 Japanese was the medium of instruction and can be fluently spoken by many educated during that period. Chinese romanisation on Taiwan uses both Tongyong pinyin which has been officially adopted by the national government, and Hanyu pinyin which some localities use. Wade-Giles, used traditionally, is also found.

About half of the ROC population can be considered religious believers, most of whom identify themselves as Buddhists or Taoists. At the same time there is a strong belief in folk religion. These are not mutually exclusive, and many people practice a combination of the three. Confucianism also is an honored school of thought and ethical code. Christian churches have been active on Taiwan for many years, a majority of which are Protestant, with Presbyterians playing a particularly significant role.





Population: 22,894,384 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 22% (male 2,485,421; female 2,292,901)
15-64 years: 70% (male 7,869,939; female 7,629,195)
65 years and over: 8% (male 1,013,074; female 900,557) (2000 est.)

Population growth rate: 0.81% (2000 est.)

Birth rate: 14.42 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Death rate: 5.91 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Net migration rate: -0.38 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.08 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.08 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.03 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 1.12 male(s)/female
total population: 1.05 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 7.06 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 77.26 years
male: 74.49 years
female: 80.28 years (2005 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.57 children born/woman (2005 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Chinese (singular and plural); Taiwanese (singular and plural). The issue of national identity is an rather controversial one on Taiwan. Almost all people on Taiwan will regard themselves as "hua ren" (華人) which is a term for Chinese in the ethnic sense and is used by overseas Chinese around the world. Similarly virtually everyone in Taiwan will regard themselves as "Taiwan ren" which literally translates as person from Taiwan.

The controversial term is "Zhongguo ren" (中國人) which is translated as People of China (the country) but has a stronger political implication than the term "Hua ren." About 50 percent or so people on Taiwan will not object to being called "zhong guo ren," but there is a significant fraction of people (around 40percent) on Taiwan who will be offended by the term. Although there are some correlations between these self-descriptions to ethnic characteristics, they largely reflect differences in what the political status of Taiwan should be.

adjective: Chinese; Taiwanese.

Alien population:
According to 2004 statistics from the R.O.C. Minister of Interior, the population of foreign residents has reached 500 thousand. Among them, alien labors constitute a 69.4 percent of the total alien residents, alien spouses constitute a 19.9%, and the rest of them are mostly visiting Taiwan for business or tourism.
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Ethnic groups

* Han: Taiwanese (including Hakka) 84%, mainland Chinese 14%
* Taiwanese aborigine: 2%

The human leukocyte antigen typing study and mitochondrion DNA analysis performed in recent years show that more than 88% of the native Han Taiwanese population have some degree of aboriginal origin.


Religions

* Mixture of Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist 93%;
* Christian 4.5%
* Other 2.5%

According to the ROC Interior Ministry figures, there are about 11.2 million religious believers in Taiwan, with more than 75% identifying themselves as Buddhists or Taoists. At the same time there is a strong belief in Chinese folk religion throughout the island. These are not mutually exclusive, and many people practice a combination of the three. Confucianism also is an honored school of thought and ethical code. Christian churches have been active on Taiwan for many years, and today the island has more than 600,000 Christians, a majority of whom are Protestant.


Languages

Mandarin Chinese (official), Taiwanese (Min), Hakka dialects

A large majority of people on Taiwan speak Mandarin Chinese, which has been the medium of instruction in the schools for more than four decades. Native Taiwanese and many others also speak one of the Southern Fujianese dialects, Min-nan, also known as Taiwanese locally. Recently there has been a growing use of Taiwanese in the broadcast media. The Hakka, who are concentrated in several counties throughout Taiwan, have their own distinct dialect. As a result of the half century of Japanese rule, many people born before 1940 also can speak fluent Japanese.

The Wade-Giles system is commonly used for Chinese romanization on Taiwan, but Chinese romanization on Taiwan tends to be highly inconsistent. Unlike Mainland China, Taiwan does not use Roman letters in teaching pronunciation in schools but rather uses a system called Zhuyin. There have been efforts by the educational system to move toward a Roman-based system, but these have been slow due to bureaucratic inertia, political reluntance to follow mainland China's footsteps and the huge cost in teacher retraining. The central government adopted Tongyong Pinyin as the official romanization in 2002 but local governments are permitted to override the standard as some have adopted Hanyu Pinyin and retained old romanizations that are commonly used.


Education

A 9-year public educational system has been in effect since 1979. Six years of elementary school and 3 years of junior high are compulsory for all children. About 94.7% of junior high graduates continue their studies in either a senior high or vocational school. Reflecting a strong commitment to education, in FY 2001 16% of the ROC budget was allocated for education.

Taiwan has an extensive higher education system with more than 100 institutions of higher learning. Each year over 100,000 students take the joint college entrance exam; about 66.6% of the candidates are admitted to a college or university. Opportunities for graduate education are expanding in Taiwan, but many students travel abroad for advanced education, including 13,000 who study in the United States annually.



Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 86% (1980 est.); note - literacy for the total population has reportedly increased to 94% (1998 est.)
male: 93% (1980 est.)
female: 79% (1980 est.)


Culture

Taiwan's culture is a blend of its distinctive Chinese heritage and Western influences. Fine arts, folk traditions, and popular culture embody traditional and modern, Asian, and Western motifs. One of Taiwan's greatest attractions is the National Palace Museum, which houses over 650,000 pieces of Chinese bronze, jade, calligraphy, painting, and porcelain. This collection was moved from the mainland in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's administration fled to Taiwan. The collection is so extensive that only 1% is on display at any one time.


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Demographics of Hong Kong

From: http://en.wikipedia....cs_of_Hong_Kong

The population of Hong Kong increased steadily over the last decade of the 1990s, reaching about 7.1 million by 2000. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, with an overall density of some 6,300 people per square kilometre. The population density with respect to built-up areas would be even higher, as only a small proportion of land is developed. Despite the population density, Hong Kong is reported to be one of the greenest cities in Asia, with the majority of people living in apartments in high-rise buildings, and most land reserved for open spaces, country parks, and woodland. The vertical placement of the population explains why the general description of Hong Kong as a densely populated, green city is not an oxymoron.

Population

7,500 (census in 1841 est.)
849,800 (census 1931)
750,000 (1945)
6,900,000 (2003, UN)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 18% (male 676,756; female 602,434)
15-64 years: 71% (male 2,520,473; female 2,563,355)
65 years and over: 11% (male 342,942; female 410,342) (2000 est.)
Average age: 34

Population growth rate: 1.35% (2000 est.)
Birth rate: 11.29 births/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Death rate: 5.93 deaths/1,000 population (2000 est.)
Net migration rate: 8.12 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2000 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.07 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.12 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female
total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2000 est.)

Average marriage age:
male: 30
female: 27

Infant mortality rate: 5.93 deaths/1,000 live births (2000 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 79.54 years
male: 76.85 years
female: 82.41 years (2000 est.)

Total fertility rate: 1.27 children born/woman (2000 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Chinese
residents are called Hongkongers

Ethnic groups: Chinese 95%, other 5%


Ethnicities


Vietnamese


The Vietnam War led to Vietnamese people fleeing to countries in Southeast Asia and around the South China Sea. Then, in 1979, Vietnam was at war with China and many ethnic Chinese living in Vietnam who felt that the government's policies directly targeted them became boat people themselves. On the open seas, the boat people had to confront forces of nature and elude pirates. The plight of the boat people became a humanitarian crisis and the UN High Commission for Refugees set up refugee camps in neighbouring countries to process them. Hong Kong adopted the "port of first asylum policy", and received the largest number of refugees, with many refugee camps being established in its territories.


Religions

Religion plays an important role in the culture of Hong Kong. Religious freedom is one of the fundamental rights enjoyed by Hong Kong residents. It is protected by the Basic Law and the relevant legislation. There are a large variety of religious groups in the Hong Kong, including Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism. All of these groups have a considerable number of adherents. Apart from offering religious instructions, many major religious bodies have established schools and provided social welfare facilities.

There are five major festivals in the Chinese calendar, with the Lunar New Year being the most important. Gifts and visits are exchanged among friends and relatives and children receive lai see, or ‘lucky money’. During the Ching Ming Festival in spring, ancestral graves are visited. In early summer (fifth day of the fifth lunar month), the Tuen Ng Festival is celebrated with dragon boat races and by eating cooked glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves. The Mid-Autumn Festival falls on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month. Gifts of mooncakes, wine and fruit are exchanged and adults and children go into parks and the countryside at night with colourful lanterns. Chung Yeung is on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, when many visit their ancestors’ graves or hike up mountains in remembrance of an ancient Chinese family’s escape from plague and death by fleeing to a mountain top.


Languages
Road signs in Hong Kong are written in both Chinese and English.
Enlarge
Road signs in Hong Kong are written in both Chinese and English.

Both Chinese and English are official languages. Most Hong Kongers speak Cantonese, specifically the dialect originated from the areas around present-day Guangzhou. There are also speakers of other Chinese spoken variants like Toisanese, Teochiu and Hakka. Although Cantonese is widely spoken in Hong Kong, Mandarin is the official spoken Chinese variant throughout China. The number of Mandarin learners in Hong Kong had not been large before the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1997. Some older people in Hong Kong, especially those living in walled and fishing villages, speak what are collectively called Waitau wah (圍頭話, lit. language used in walled village).

For written Chinese, unlike mainland China, where simplified Chinese characters are used, traditional Chinese characters are widely used, and is the de facto writing standard. But owing to the increasing number of tourists from mainland China, simplified Chinese characters are now more frequently used in Hong Kong. Simplified Chinese characters can be frequently found on posters, leaflets, flyers and road signs in the tourist areas in Hong Kong.

English is the major working language in Hong Kong, and is widely used in commercial activities and legal matters. Albeit the sovereignty of Hong Kong has been transfered to the PRC by the United Kingdom in 1997, English is still one of the official languages of the Hong Kong, and its official status is enshrined in the Basic Law.

Many Hong Kongers are literally bilingual when they speak, as their speech comprises both Cantonese and English. Usually the syntax of their discourse is Cantonese, while filled up with English words and phrases. Some people regard such a way of speaking mere affectation. Others confess that is the only way they can make themselves understood. The hybridization of Cantonese and English are often criticized as "neither Chinese nor English", and the Cantonese speakers that incorporate too much English in Cantonese are regarded by people with opposite views as "language-handicapped."

Education

Education in Hong Kong has a similar system to that of the United Kingdom, in particular the English education system, as Hong Kong was colonised by the British from 1841 to 1997. Following the introduction of the comprehensive school system in the 1960's in the UK, children in Hong Kong transformed from the old education system of entering a 'first' school (4 years) followed by a 'secondary-middle' school (4 years), then a 'secondary-high' school (3 + 2 years) to the 'new' education system of primary school (6 years) followed by secondary school (5 + 2 years). The trend of late has been to replace 'first' schools with primary schools and accordingly, 'secondary-middle' and 'secondary-high' schools with fully-fledged secondary schools.

In Hong Kong there is a non-compulsory three-year kindergarten education followed by a legal requirement of a six-year primary education and three-year junior secondary education. It is then followed by a non-compulsory two-year senior secondary education and two-year matriculation course leading to the Advanced Level examinations. There are also tertiary institutions offering various bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees, other higher diplomas and associate degree courses.

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over has ever attended school
total population: 92.2%
male: 96%
female: 88.2% (1996 est.)