Abstract
Since 2000, the internal driving forces and external conditions for human development have changed drastically. More than four decades after China’s family planning policy went into effect, the country has seen notable decrease in its population growth rates and other demographic changes. These developments have alleviated pressure on resource and environment, facilitated economic growth and social progress, improved Chinese people’s quality of life and contributed towards the country’s modernization. Slowdown of population growth is also crucial for the Chinese government’s goal to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. In the future, the general demographic trend in China will be as follows: population growth will continue to slow down and the total population will peak around 2030; working-age population will shrink, and the percentage of elderly people in the labor force will grow; the aging challenge will worsen, with the proportion of children decreasing; mobility of population will remain high, leading to higher population concentration levels; sex ratio at birth will gradually return to normal, and family forms will become increasingly diversified; minority ethnic population will increase, and population growth will vary across the country.
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Notes
- 1.
A natural system is a naturally formed system largely uncontrollable by human beings. Man-made systems can be divided into three categories: (i) physical systems developed by human beings to handle or change the natural world, such as mines and factories; (ii) social or behavioral systems; and (iii) knowledge systems representing humankind's understanding of natural and social phenomena.
- 2.
According to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of the People's Republic of China (SEAC), small ethnic groups were initially defined as ethnic groups with a population less than 100,000. From 2000 to 2010, the Chinese government stepped up efforts to support ethnic minorities, leading to noticeable improvement of the livelihoods of ethnic minorities. In 2010, after investigation, small ethnic groups were redefined as ethnic groups with a population less than 300,000.
- 3.
The five categories are: Category-1 (>50 per 1,000 people), Category-2 (40 per 1,000 people to 49 per 1,000 people), Category-3 (30 per 1,000 people to 39 per 1,000 people), Category-4 (20 per 1,000 people to 29 per 1,000 people) and Category-5) <20 per 1,000 people).
- 4.
Wu Zhongguan (Ed.). (1997). Encyclopedia of Demography. Southwest University of Finance and Economics Press, pp. 28–32.
- 5.
Ansley J. Coale. (1992). Economic Factors in Population Growth. In Gu Baochang (Ed.). Perspectives of Social Demography. The Commercial Press, p. 122.
- 6.
Cha Ruichuan. “A Brief Discussion of Population Reproduction”. Population Research, 1979 (2).
- 7.
A life table presents the percentage of deaths/survivals in a group of people born in the same year and their average life expectancy for every year of age.
- 8.
There are 56 ethnic minority groups (i.e., the 55 distinguished ethnic minority groups plus Chinese people of unidentified ethnicity) in China.
- 9.
Zhang Tianlu. A Demographic Study of Ethnic Minorities, Retrieved from http://lw.china-b.com/zxsh/20090317/954919_1.html.
- 10.
The seven ethnic groups are Salar, Uyghur, Kyrgyz, Dongxiang, Lahu, Bonan, and Tujia.
- 11.
Huang Rongqing, Zhao Xianren, et al. (2004). Demographic Changes of Ethnic Groups in the 1990s. Ethnic Publishing House, p. 124.
- 12.
In 2000, six ethnic groups (i.e., Tujia, Gaoshan, Yi, Maonan, Bonan, and Dongxiang) reported an average annual growth rate of more than 3%.
- 13.
More specifically, China's crude mortality rate was 20 per 1,000 people in 1949, 10.80 per 1,000 people in 1957, 7.60 per 1,000 people in 1970, 6.87 per 1,000 people in 1977, 6.69 per 1,000 people in 1986, 6.28 per 1,000 people in 1990, 6.13 per 1,000 people in 2000, and 5.57 per 1,000 people in 2010.
- 14.
At present, the average infant mortality rate of developed countries is 8 per 1,000 people and their average life expectancy is around 75 years.
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Yan, Y., Lv, Z. (2020). Ethnic Populations as Natural Systems: Internal Relations and Behavioral Properties. In: Chinese Ethnic Demography. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6153-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6153-5_2
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