1. Basic Figures

     1. Name: Heilongjiang Province
     2. Areas: 454600 square kilometers
     3. Population: 38.108 million (by the end of 1997)

4. Capital: Ha’erbin City
5. Geography: Heilongjiang located in the North China between East longitude 121'13 - 135'05 and north latitude 43'22 - 53'24, as a part of the frigid and temperate zone. It has a common boundary with Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Jilin Provinces. Its north is bordered on the southeast of Russia.

6. Nature Resources: Heilongjiang Province not only has rich soil resources with large quantity of cultivated land which takes the first place in China, but also has rich water resource with good quality for agriculture, industry and the use of living. Heilongjiang has a large of forest coverage, many kinds of biologic resource and rich mineral resource. The petroleum resource in Heilongjiang has been proved its reserve, which is the first place in China. The Daqing Oil Field is not only the biggest one in China, but also is one of the few biggest oil fields in the world. As the one of the ten largest bases of coalfield, its amount of reserves, output and export are all play important roles in China. Heilongjiang is also rich in some of other mineral resources such as gold and lead.
7. Economy: The GDP in Heilongjiang in the year of 1997 was 270850 million Yuan, the gross output value of agriculture and industry 354770 million Yuan, and the per capita GDP 7243 Yuan. The total value of imports and exports in Heilongjiang in 1997 reached up to 3580 million US dollars. The government revenue was more than 15060 million Yuan, and the output of grain was about 31.044 million tons. Heilongjiang’s agriculture played an important role in China. The level of agriculture mechanization is high, and the industry developed rapidly. Heilongjiang opened up comparatively late, but it has been developed dramatically. It had become an important base of agriculture and industry in its products such as marketable grains, woods, coals, oil and so on.
8. People's Life: Based on the statistics at the end of 1997, Heilongjiang had 27.126 million labor force, accounting for 72.3 percent of total population. Total wage bill of staff and workers was 38280 million Yuan, with the total value of insurance and welfare funds for on-job and no on-job staff and workers 10780.46 million Yuan. The net per capita income of rural households was 2308.3 Yuan, and on the average the wage bill of staff and workers was 4889 Yuan per person. The annual per capita income at urban and town residents' own disposal was up to 4090.7 Yuan. Per capita consumption of all residents on average was 3210 Yuan, and for rural residents 1702 Yuan, urban residents 5059 Yuan. In terms of health services for every 10000 people were facilitated with 32.3 hospital beds and 20.6 doctors or nurses.
9. Education: At the end of 1997, Heilongjiang had 37 universities with 115767 enrolled students and 15736 teaches, and 5954 middle schools with 4194845 students and 152402 teachers, and 15377 primary schools with 3705059 pupils and 214807 teachers. Heilongjiang people have relatively higher educational level than that of other regions with less illiterate and semi-illiterate. It is one of the provinces with relatively high population quality in education.

2. Population Situation

1. Size and Distribution

The total population in Heilongjiang in 1997 accounted 38.108 million. With diversity distribution the most people live in plain areas in the mid-west, less in mountain and hills in mid-south, and even less in the east plain and in the north- mountain. On the whole, the population density is low, and the speed of increasing in density is slow. The population density in cities is the highest. The regional deviation in population density is obvious among the administrative regions. As the development of economy in whole province and the transfer of strategic emphasis in development, the population distribution has changed a lot. It expressed that the center of distribution move to the east, the increase rates of density in urban is higher than in rural. The minority people are widely distributed in Heilongjiang, and the increase in the minority population is fast. With 48 out of 56 ethnic groups in China, Heilongjiang is listed as one of the multiple minorities’ provinces.

After 1949, the population growth of Heilongjiang has been gone through a process from rapid increase to quick reduce. The population size has increased largely and the speed of increase became slower gradually. With the social economic development in last four decades and the practice of population policy, the growth of Heilongjiang population has passed three peaks and two undermost points which can be classified into five periods as following:

The first period, 1950-1957, was characterized as the first highest growth period. The annual increase rate was 4.44 percent, the population development in this period was blind and unplanned.

The second period, 1958-1962, was defined as the rapid decline in population growth rates. With the crude birth rates (CBRs) were reduced rapidly, the first undermost point in population growth was formed.

The third period, 1963-1972, can be divided into two stages. From 1963 to 1965, the CBRs increased rapidly due to the retrieved fertility after resuming from economic disaster, and the second peak of birth rates was formed in Heilongjiang with increment of 0.8095 million persons per year on average. From 1966 to 1972, the CBRs were kept at high level, with over 34 per thousand.

The forth period, 1973-1985, was slow down in population growth and CBRs were reduced obviously due to implementing family planning program.

The fifth period, 1986-1997, was kept the low fertility, but the third peak of population growth was formed due to the rebound of birth rates by population momentum.

3. Population Structure by Sex and Age

After 1949, the population structure by sex in Heilongjiang has great changed. Up to 1990s the trend of changes in sex ratio of total population was generally declined, then in 1990s the sex radio became normal with little change. In 1997, the total population in the whole province is 38.108 million with 19.426 million males and 18.682 million females and the sex radio was 103.98.

In term of age structure, in 1997 among the 38.108 million population, people of age 0-14 accounts 8.342 million, about 21.9 percent. The number of people age 15-64 was 28.009 million, about 73.5 percent. The elderly age over 65 years old was 1.757 million, accounting for 4.6 percent of total population. Total dependency ratio was 36.06 percent, with the youth dependency ratio 29.78 percent and the elderly dependency ratio 6.27 percent.

4. Fertility Level and Changes

Since 1949, the fertility level in Heilongjiang has kept in the trend of decline with some fluctuations and it reduced to the low level at present. But it could be further declined potentially, if the early births and the out-of-plan births in rural areas were eliminated. In 1997, the CBR in Heilongjiang was 12.02 per thousand, the natural increase rate was 6.85 per thousand. By the population projection, in the future, Heilongjiang population will go through three stages: low growth, zero growth and negative growth before 2050s in next century. It is estimated that Heilongjiang population will walk into the period of negative growth after 2020.

Since 1949, Mortality in Heilongjiang has been reduced obviously. The mortality rate in Heilongjiang was reduced from10 per thousand and above in the early of 1950s to 5.17 per thousand in 1997. In general, the age specific mortality rates in Heilongjiang are in low level, and the figure of death rates by ages looks like “J-shape”. The mortality level in urban is lower than that in rural. In the minority groups the mortality of males is higher than that of females. From the early of 1950s, the infant mortality has been reducing with fast speed. The life expectancy in Heilongjiang has great improved in past four decades, and it reached 68.4 years in 1990.

4. Marriage Status, Family Size and Type

The forth census in 1990 shows that all the unmarried person above 15 years old was 6.229 million, accounting for 24.1 percent in total population. Percentage of unmarried men was greater than that of unmarried women, and urban was greater than rural. Percentage of spouse in women was higher than that in men, and urban was higher than rural. The percentage of widows was higher than that of widowers. There was a great difference of widowing between urban and rural. The proportion of widows in illiterates and semi-illiterates was high. The proportion of widows in different occupations was diverse. There was an obvious gap in divorce rates between urban and rural, as well as in different regions.

In 1997, there were 15.081 million males and 14.685 million females aged 15 and over, totally 29.767 million people in Heilongjiang. Among them there were 3.263 million males and 2.482 million females unmarried, 10.77 million males and 10.855 million females first married with spouse, 0.375 million males and 0.372 million females remarried, 0.193 million males and 0.128 million females divorced, 0.48 million widowers and 0.849 million widows.

In terms of family size, the size in Heilongjiang family is varied from urban to rural, and urban is smaller than rural. The main family form in the whole province is two-generation family. But the conventional three-generation family has little raised. And the backbone family composed grand parents, parents and single child has been reduced.

5. Aging of Population

The forth census in 1990 showed that the proportion of the elderly had increased in the passed years, with 6.28 percent of total population in 1990 were aged 60 years and above and 3.78 percent for 65 years and above. The increase of the elderly was faster than the total population growth. The proportion of elderly in Heilongjiang now is comparatively lower than any other province in the country. But the sex ratio of the elderly is slight high. The aged population is relatively young with large part of persons at younger ages. The illiterate and semi-illiterate rate in the elderly took 67.67 percent in 1990. With high proportion of the elderly was married with their spouses, the unmarried rate and divorced rate in the elderly were very low, same as the rate of widow or widower. The elderly participate in economic activities was about 13.98 percent.

The population quality in Heilongjiang has been greatly improved since 1949. But the level of educational attainment in different group of people is out of the balance, with a great gap between urban and rural. The population quality in terms of educational level in urban is higher than that in rural obviously. The educational attainment for the people living in relatively developed big or middle cities and industrialized areas is higher. On the contrary, the education in the behindhand areas is lower. And the education in females is lower than that in males.

From 1949 to 1979, except the year of 1962, Heilongjiang has a lot of migrants from all over the country. The major reasons is in supporting of construction workers and coming of the Educated Urban Youth who went to the countryside and mountains from big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, and floating with a large number of peasants from Shandong blindly into Heilongjiang. From that on, the net migration went down, because the Educated Urban Youth were returned to the original cities. Since 1980, Heilongjiang become out-migration great than in-migration, since the governments adopted the policy of controlling immigration and some migrants were pull back to the rapidly developed in Shandong and other provinces. In 1980s, the floating population was reducing year by year, but it appears rebounds in 1990s.

In terms of international migration, the emigration of Heilongjiang is more than immigration, and the immigration is almost in the overseas Chinese.

6. Population, Resources and Environment

Heilongjiang is rich in natural resources. But the pressure to resources became more serious as the social economy developed rapidly and the population grew overly. The serious issues of natural ecology caused by over activity and unplanned exploiture and use of resources. We have no ability to solve some problems of pollution, because of weakness in technology and productivity, fragility of economic carrying capacity and infirmity of facility. All these make environment and nature resources deteriorated.

Top of page