DEMOGRAPHICS
General Information
The population of the People's Republic of China is 1,5 bil. people (1st place in the world.)
The male population accounts for 51,9% of the total population, and the female population 48,1%. The population is divided into age groups in the following ratio: under 15 years old – 17,6%; from 15 to 65 years old – 73,6%; over 64 years old – 8,9%.
The sex ratio is 1,08 men per one woman.
Average life expectancy is 72,7 years for men and 76,9 for women.
Ethnic and Confessional Composition
Ethnic composition
Officially, China has 56 nationalities, of which more than 90% are Han Chinese (an ethnic self-designation originating from the Han Empire), the remaining peoples are considered national minorities. Division into nationalities occurs according to linguistic and geographical characteristics. Chinese names usually consist of two or three syllables, the surname is written before the given name, and usually consists of one syllable.
The most numerous nationalities are:
- Zhuang (1,26%);
- Hui (0,79%);
- Manchu (0,78%);
- Uyghur (0,75%);
- Miao (0,7%);
- Tibetans (0,47%);
- Mongols (0,45%).
Confessional composition
The PRC Constitution guarantees citizens' right to freedom of religion. Contacts with India, the Arab World, and Europe have historically contributed to religious diversity in China.
The most widespread religious movements in China are Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism; an individual's belief in one of the three religions does not exclude their belief in the others.
The following religions are widespread in the PRC:
- Folk beliefs (Taoism and Confucianism) – (21,9%);
- Buddhism – (18,2%);
- Christianity – (5,1%);
- Islam – (1,8%);
- Other – (0,8%).
More than half of the population (52,2%) does not practice any religion, or are atheists.
State Language
The state language of the PRC is Chinese. The Chinese language represents a collection of greatly differing dialects. The differences between spoken dialects are so great that residents of different regions of the country may not understand each other. In this regard, the "putonghua" language, literally - "common/ordinary speech", was adopted as the official written and spoken standard in the PRC.
In Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau, an analogue of "putonghua" is used - "guoyu", which has minimal differences, and in Singapore and Malaysia - "huayu". About 70% of Han Chinese speak the northern "Mandarin" dialect, or one of its variants. National minorities speak national languages; within autonomies, their languages are recognized as state languages.
The Chinese language does not have an alphabet. Characters are used in writing. Each character, unlike alphabetic writing, is assigned a non-phonetic meaning. In China, two main forms of the character writing system are distinguished -- the old "wenyan" and the modern "baihua".