1. Name: Hebei Province
2. Areas: 190 thousand km²
3. Population: 6.6283 million (by the end of 1997)
4. Provincial Capital: Shijiazhuang City
5. Geography: Hebei Province is in northern Huabei Plain, to the north of the lower Yellow River and to the west of Bohai Sea with a coastline about 500 km long. It is between 113° 27¢ E. ~119° 50¢ E. and 36° 3¢ N. ~42° 4¢ N., and neighbors on Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong.
6. Natural Resources: Hebei’s land resource is the 14^th of China, but with a large population, the resource per capita is poor. In its living resources, there are over a thousand utilizable species of plant, and the animal species make up 25 percent of China’s animals. By the end of 1989, 106 types of minerals had been found in this province. Hebei’s ocean resource and tourism resource is rich as well.
7. Economy: In 1997, the gross domestic product of Hebei was 395.378 billion yuan, the gross industrial and agricultural output value was 741.719 billion yuan, and the per capita gross national product was 6103.09 yuan. The total imports and exports was 7,383.54 million US dollars; total provincial government revenue was 17,607.42 million yuan; yield of grain 2.7467 million tons, per capita yield of grain was 335.72 kg. Hebei has a long history of agriculture, and is one of important production areas of grain and cotton in China. Animal husbandry and fishery is also important components of economy. The industry developed greatly after the 50¢ s, Hebei is currently a major industrial base of coal, steel, and textile.
8. People's Life: By the end of 1997, Hebei had labor force 43.1716 million, made 66.16% total provincial population, the labor force resource utilization rate was 77.00%. The total wages of staff and workers was 38,597.72 million yuan, total social insurance and welfare funds of employed and retired staff and workers were 12.21 billion yuan. The per capita net income of rural residence was 2,286.01 yuan. The average wage of staff and workers was 5,692 yuan, and the per capita annual disposable income of urban households was 4,982.43 yuan. The average household consumption was 2,151 yuan, 1,641 for rural residence and 4,468 for urban residence. The number of hospital beds per 10,000 persons was 25.1, and number of doctors per 10,000 persons was 35.8.
9. Education: By the end of 1997, there were 46 higher education institutions in Hebei Province, with number of student enrollment 135,974 and teachers 16,656; 5,076 secondary schools with number of student enrollment 3,893,500 and teachers 210,600; 46,243 primary schools with number of student enrollment 9,011,200 and teachers 289,800. The features of education distribution of Hebei population are the increase of educated population and decrease of illiterate and half-illiterate population annually.

Top of page

1. Size and Distribution

The total population of Hebei Province in 1997 was 66.283 million, the 6^th of China. The population density was 346.5/km². The density is higher in the south and middle, lower in the north and west, higher in plain, and unevenly distributed in the mountains and hills. The population densities are highest along Beijing-Guangzhou railway line and Beijing-Shanhaiguan highway. There is more rural population than urban.

2. Population History

The population in Hebei has been more than doubled since the 50¢ s. The process can be divided into 5 periods:

1950~57 was the period of fast increase of total population with an annual rate of 2.19%, about 730 thousands increase annually;

1958~61 was the trough of population increase;

1962~72 population increase bounced back and peak of fertility was observed, the net population increase during the 11 years was 9.3248 million, average 847.7 thousands increase annually;

1973~81 the speed of increase slowed down to annual rate 1.33%, 587.4 thousands increase annually;

The 5^th period, from 1982 up to now, population growth swung back with 795 thousand additional people annually, the net increase during the last 16 years was 12.7204 million.

3. Population Structure by Sex and Age

Since 1949, the sex ratio of Hebei population increased gradually and smoothly, around 102~106 on the whole. It was 104.03 in 1997 for the provincial total population. However, there are uneven distribution of sex ratios, Yanshan Mountain and Taihangshan Mountain are the areas with high sex ratio. In 1997 population of 66.283 million, population of age 0~14 was 16.918 million, made 25.52% of the total; 15~64 population made 67.83% of the total (44.959 million); and population of age 65 and above was 4.406 million, made 6.65% of the total. The total dependency ratio was 47.73%, with the ratio of children 37.63% and of aged 9.80%.

4. Fertility Level and Changes

The overall trend of fertility change in Hebei has been from high to low. The highest was 7.33 in 1963. It decreased gradually to 2.48 of 1990. This change is mainly the effect of economic development, social development, and family planning policy. In 1997, the birth rate in Hebei was 13.11‰, natural increase rate 6.29‰. According to population projections in 3 scenarios of high, medium, and low, the population of Hebei will still increase in the early of next century; the natural increase rate will be not less than 7‰ by year 2010.

5. Mortality and Life Expectancy

The mortality decreased sharply since the establishment of new China, much earlier than the decrease of birth rate. It dropped from 12.73‰ in 1949 to 6.82‰ in 1997, kept below the average of national level. The infant mortality rates experienced great decrease. Currently the male mortality rate is higher than that of females, and sex ratio of death for elderly is increasing.

The average life expectancies during 1929~33 were 40.03 for male and 35.76 for female in Huabei area, and they were 70.01 and 73.60 in 1990 in Hebei Province, makes 71.70 in average.

Hebei experienced a mortality transition from high mortality and low life expectancy before 1949 to low mortality and high life expectancy, close to the levels of developed countries.

6. Marriage Status, Family Size and Type

According to 1990 4^th National Census, the never-married population proportion decreased, lower than that of national level and among the lowest in all provinces. The sex ratio of never-married population was high, which means that there were more unmarried male. There appeared to be a “low, high, low” bow-shaped pattern in never-married population proportion by age. The rate of early marriage increased among young adults. The proportion of currently married increased, with higher for female of age 60 and younger than male of the same age, higher in town than in city, and higher in city than in rural. There was more widowed female than male, and the size of widowed population is positively related to age. The rate of widowhood was low in rural and high in town, with city in between. As the rate of widowhood decreasing, the ratio of male to female widowhood decreases. The sub-population of different occupation had different widowhood rates. Divorce rates increased as age increasing, with male higher than female and the difference increased gradually. There were obvious differences between rural and urban, and among different areas. In 1997, among 49.365 million population of age 15 and older, there were 24.806 million male and 24.559 female. Among them there were 5.122 million never married male and 3.706 million female; first-married male 18.404 million, and female 18.701 million; remarried male 263 thousand and female 373 thousand; divorced male 209 thousand and female 83 thousand; widowed male 808 thousand and female 1,696 thousand.

The size of family household has been decreased; it was smaller in the north and larger in the south. The mode of household size was 4. The families were mainly in two-generation structure, mostly nuclear families. The family structure is becoming much homogeneity.

7. Aging of Population

By 1990 4^th National Census, the population of age 60 and older reached 5.4567 million in Hebei, made 8.93% of total population. The aged population increased fast with a large size, and is still increasing. The aged-child ratio was 30.76%, an aging level already. The age median and life expectancy of elderly are rising, and the dependency ratio for aged population is rising also, which makes the dependency burden heavier to the population of working age.

As for the distribution of aged population, there was more in the lower ages, 65~69 age group population made 61.82%, 70~79 age group 30.00%, and people who were 80 years and older made 8.18% of total aged population. 72.52% of aged population were illiterate or half-illiterate. Most of aged population was ever married. The employment rate among them was 29.78%.

8. Population Quality

The 1990 National Census shows that education level of Hebei population improved very much, the proportion of people with education increased, and the increase was more obvious for higher education level. The proportion of illiterate population among people age 15 and older was 14.30%. The average years of schooling increased, and was higher in urban.

9. Migration and Population Floating

Hebei is second highest in internal out-migration size, next to Sichuan Province. The first reason of out-migration is finding a job or doing business, the other reasons are job transfer or living with relatives. Finding job or doing business, for study or training, and marriage mainly caused the in-migration inside the province. Marriage, job transfer, and following family are the main reasons for in-migrants from other provinces.

10. Population, Resources and Environment

The burden of resource shortage has been increasing because of the increase of population growth. The conflict of people¢ s needs with resource shortage and environmental pollution is much intense. Hebei is a province with mainly agricultural population, and the urbanization level is relatively low. It is important to control population effectively, to utilize resource appropriately, and especially important, to protect the environment.

Top of page