China began a once in 10 years census today that will see six million inspectors document massive demographic changes in the world’s most populous country.
The 2000 tally put China’s official population at 1.295 billion people, but missed migrant workers living in cities for less than six months.
Since then there has been an extensive shift in the population base as tens of millions of migrant workers have poured into urban areas looking for work.
“Wherever you are living from November 1st to November 10th, you will be counted,” said Zhang Xueyuan, director of the publicity for the Beijing census committee.
It is the sixth time China has carried out a national census, but the first time it will count people where they live and not where their resident certificate, or hukou, is legally registered.
The change will better track the demographic changes and find the true size of China’s giant cities, the populations of which up to now have been only estimates.
China has gone to great lengths to promote the census this year. In Beijing, giant, colourful banners have slogans such as: “The census is for the nation and each citizen,” and “Everyone participates in the census.”
Chinese census-takers plan to speed up the process by going door-to-door asking people questions about their education level, family history, employment situation, and resident status.
Every census-taker covers about 80 to 100 households, where about 90 per cent have to answer 18 questions about home ownership, jobs and family members.
The other 10 per cent, randomly selected, take an extended 45-question survey that seeks further information on reasons for moving, unemployment and other personal details.
One of the biggest challenges is to document China’s migrant or “floating population,” which will show the government a better picture of the numbers in its giant cities.
About 140 million migrant workers work outside of their hometowns, according to a 2009 National Bureau of Statistics report, many of whom remain unregistered.
Under China's hukou household registration system, citizens are designated urban or rural. This means many migrant workers registered in their hometowns are denied access to government services in cities, including health care and education.
Census-takes could face difficulties getting migrant workers to share personal information if they are working in cities illegally or have given birth while residing in a city without proper documents.
Families with unregistered children may also be reluctant to provide information. China has a one-child policy and parents with children born in violation of the rule are required to pay a hefty fine. To encourage people to come forward, those penalties will be reduced for families if they register their extra children in the census.
There have been no published predictions on how much China’s population has grown in the last decade, but if it grew by just 1 per cent a year, that would be an addition of 130 million people in just 10 years. The main data gathered during the census is to be released at the end of April.
PA