Research

The healthy development of children is the basis for positive human and social development. In recent years, while great improvements have been made in the survival and development of China's large population of children, noticeable internal disparities remain. Factors such as rapid socio-economic transformation, unbalanced regional development, and mass internal migration have resulted in survival and development challenges for many children. The censuses and surveys are rich sources of basic data and information on children, reflecting the demographic changes over time and the key characteristics of sub-groups. Analysis of census data can support enhanced understanding of the challenges faced by children and help inform more evidence-based decision making to address these challenges towards the fulfilment of child rights. This publication describes and analyzes the status of China's child population, based on data from the 2015 1% National Population Sample Survey and previous censuses and inter-census surveys.

Data Sources: The data in this publication mainly comes from the 2015 1% National Population Sample Survey conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of China, as well as from previous censuses and inter-census surveys. Currently, China conducts a national census every ten years, with six censuses conducted to date, in 1953, 1964, 1982, 1990, 2000 and 2010. China conducts an inter-census population survey in the middle year between two censuses, with a sampling fraction of 1% (also called “mini-census”). The two most recent inter-census surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2015.

Acknowledgement: This publication has been developed on the basis of the research projects conducted on the 2015 1% National Population Sample Survey by Professor Duan Chengrong and Dr. Lv Lidan from Renmin University. These research projects received the technical and financial support of the NBS/UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Data Project.