|
Jiangxi
I. Basic Figures
- Name:
Jiangxi Province
- Areas:
166.9 thousand
- Population:
41.5033 million (registered
population by the end of 1997)
- Provincial
Capital: Nanchang City
- Geography:
Jiangxi province is in the eastern part of China, to the south of
middle-lower reaches of Yangzte River. It is between 24029'~30004'N
and 113034'~118028'E,
and neighbors on Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei and Anhui.
- Natural
Resources: By the end of 1997, Jiangxi's area of cultivated
land was 2.2981 million hectares, the effective irrigated area was
1.9001 million hectares, and it is one of China's main grain production
areas. Jiangxi's forest coverage rate was 53.3% by the end of 1997. In
addition, Jiangxi has many fresh water fish resources of high value and
many types of waterfowl of rare types, even rare animals that are
protected worldwide. Nearly 130 types of minerals have been found in
Jiangxi, 28 types are among the richest in China, and 11 types are the
first.
- Economy:
In 1997, the gross domestic product of Jiangxi was 171.518 billion
yuan; the gross industrial and agricultural output value was 235.864
billion yuan. The total imports and exports were 1,856.02 million US
dollars; total provincial government revenue was 13,492 million yuan.
The yield of grain is 17.677 million tons in 1997, the highest in
history. However, the economic structure of Jiangxi is not very good,
agriculture is relatively week, and it is difficult for farmers to
increase production further; some enterprises had a hard time, there
are increasing in lay off workers, reemployment issue is raised.
- People's
Life: By the end of 1997, Jiangxi had labor force of 27.688
million people, made 66.7% of total provincial population. The labor
force resource utilization rate was 76.6%. The total wages of staff and
workers was 19,440 million yuan, and the total social insurance and
welfare funds of employed and retired staff and workers were 5.272201
billion yuan. The average wage of staff and workers was 5,089 yuan, and
the per capita net income of rural residence was 2107.08 yuan, the per
capita annual disposable income of urban households was 4,071.36 yuan.
The average household consumption was 1,930 yuan, 1,569 for rural
residence and 3,200 for urban residence. The number of hospital beds
per 10,000 persons was 21.75, and the number of doctors per 10,000
persons was 12.50.
- Education:
In 1997, higher education in Jiangxi developed rapidly. The province
recruited 414 postgraduate students with the number of graduate student
1076 in school; higher education institutions with the number of
student enrollment 87,993. Specialized secondary schools with the
number
of student enrollment 138,001; vocational high schools with a number of
student enrollment 115,227; Junior high schools with number of student
enrollment 1,959,700 and primary schools with a number of student
enrollment 4,544,700. The primary school-age enrollment rate is 99.56%.
II. Population Situation
1. Size and Distribution
The total population of Jiangxi
Province in 1997 was 41.5033 million.
Compared with other provinces, the distribution of population is much
even mainly because there is little difference in climate, landform and
natural resources in different parts of the province. Rural population
constitutes the majority of the whole population and they are scattered
in the whole province. Most areas of Jiangxi is good for farming. But
there are still regional differences in the distribution of population:
the density is higher along rivers and lakes; higher in plain and
cities while the proportion of agricultural and mountainous population
are higher.
2.
Population History
The population increase process of
Jiangxi can be divided into 5
periods: 1950~1952 was a period of fast population growth with an
annual increase rate of 8.01%. 1953~1959 was the first peak of
population increase with an annual rate of 2.56%. 1960~1962 was the
trough of population growth. Affected by the disasters, the increase
rate decreased to only 1.01% annually. 1963~1978 was the second peak of
population growth with an annual rate of 2.82%; about 714.3 thousand
annual increment. From 1979 up now is the period of birth control with
plan. Effective Family Planning Program was carried out through the
whole province, which successfully relieved the burden of third peak of
population growth. From 1982 to 1997, the population increased by 528.9
thousand people each year with an annual rate of 1.43%.
3. Population
Structure by Sex and Age
The sex
ratio of Jiangxi had long been higher than that of average national
level, always around 106~107 on the whole, and stabilized in recent
years. There are more males than females. In 1997, population of age
0-14 made 27.19% of the total; 15-64 population made 66.92%; and
population of age 65 and above made 5.89% of the total. The median age
was 27.42 and the total dependency ratio was 49.03%, with the ratio of
children 40.28% and of aged 8.75%, and Jiangxi is an adult population.
4. Fertility
Level and Changes
There has
been a transition in the ideology of population growth, from "there are
much land but less population and population growth should be
encouraged" to "population growth should be controlled". The TFR of
Jiangxi was among the highest of China. But since 1990s, thanks to the
effective measures of family planning the birth rate, TFR and
multi-child rate have kept declining. In 1997, the birth rate was 17.43‰;the natural increase rate was
10.87‰. According to
population projections in 3 scenarios of high, medium and low, the
population of Jiangxi will still increase in the next 40 years, and the
maximum population may reach more than 50 million. The population
increased most quickly during the 90s. The overall trend of population
growth will be from high to low, but it may bounce back in some year.
5. Mortality
and Life Expectancy
The
mortality had been declining since the 50s except for one or two years.
In 1954, the mortality of Jiangxi was 14.15‰,
and it was 6.65‰ in 1997.
The male mortality rate is higher than that of females; the mortality
in rural areas is higher than that of urban areas; the lower age-group
population has a lower mortality. The pattern of mortality changed from
"U" to "J" shaped.
According
to the historical record, in the early 50s, the life expectancy was
only 30~35. In 1990, it was 67.85.
6. Marriage Status, Family Size and Type
According
to 1990 4th National Census, the age of never-married population
concentrated on age 24 and younger. Early marriage was widely
practiced. Most females marry at the age of 20-24, males at 24-29, and
the percentage of never married is low. The proportion of never-married
population was higher in city than in township and rural areas. The
proportion of currently married was higher for females than for males,
and higher in city than in county and town. There were more widowed
females than males, and the widowhood rate of county was the highest.
As for divorced, both the quantity and rate were higher for males than
for females, and the rate increased by age. There was no obvious
difference between urban areas and rural areas in divorce rate, but
regional difference was observed. In 1997, among the total age 15 and
above population of 30.764 million, there were 15.565 million male and
15.199 million female; population of first marriage were 10.567 million
males and 10.924 million females; population of second marriage were
247 thousand for males and 287 thousand for females; divorced males
were 165 thousand and females were 53 thousand; and widowed males 531
thousand and females 1362 thousand.
As for
the family size and structure, the proportion of households of
three-generation and above is higher in rural than that in township and
county. The two-generation households constitute the majority of all
households and the four-person household is the most popular size.
7. Aging of
Population
Though
the population of Jiangxi is adult-type, the proportion of aged
population is increasing at an fast speed. In 1990, the proportion of
population aged 60 and above was 7.73%, which increased by 0.47%
compared with that of 1982. Though the proportion was not very high,
the aging of the population is faster in 90s than that of 80s due to
the decline of birth rate and the prolongation of life expectancy. It
is projected that Jiangxi province will become an aged population in
around 2015. Over the eight years from 1982 to 1990, the proportion of
the aged population currently-married and never-married increased,
while the proportion of the divorced and widowed population decreased.
24.27% of the elderly persons had a job.
8. Population Quality
Since
1982, education level of Jiangxi population improved much, the
proportion of people with education increased, and that of illiterate
and half-illiterate population decreased. In 1997, the educated
population accounted for 81.13% of the total population, but mainly
focused on primary education level. There is still a big gap between
Jiangxi and the national average level.
9. Migration
and Population Floating
With the
reform and openness policy, both internal migration and inner migration
have been increased in Jiangxi. The size of inter-provincial migration
is larger than intra-provincial migration; the direction of migration
is from rural to urban areas; male migrants are more than females;
there are various reasons for migration but mainly focus on finding a
job or doing business, job transfer, and marriage.
10. Population, Resources and
Environment
Jiangxi
has rich resources, which include rivers and lakes, plantings and
minerals. However, Jiangxi also suffers many disasters such as flood,
drought, freezing and so on. The exploitation and utilization of
resources just can meet the demand of economic development. There are
still many problems, such as under-exploitation of minerals and hydro-
power; destroy of natural resources and environment due to the
inappropriate use and exploitation; the backward technology of
exploitation; over-seize cultivated land in the process of
industrialization.
Top
of page
|