1. Name: Shaanxi Province
2. Areas: 205.6 thousand km²
3. Population: 35.701 million (registered population by the end of 1997)
4. Provincial Capital: Xi’an City
5. Geography: Shaanxi Province located in the north-western of China, middle reaches of Yellow River, between 31° 42¢ ~39° 35¢ N and 105° 29¢ ~110° 15¢ E. It neighbors on Shanxi, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner-Mongolia. Shaanxi crosses temperate and subtropical zones, has clear monsoon climate feature. The northern part of Shaanxi is loess plateau, middle part is Guanzhong plain, and the southern part is Qin-Ba mountainous area.
6. Natural Resources: Shaanxi¢ s plant and animal resource, mineral resource, and energy resource take very important position in China. There are more than 4,800 types of plants and nearly thousand animal species, including national protected animal great panda, snub-nosed monkey, takin, and tiger. There were more than 80 mineral resource found with the reserve of coal as the 3^rd of the country, and natural gas field the 1^st.
7. Economy: In 1997, the gross domestic product of Shaanxi was 132.604 billion yuan, the gross industrial and agricultural output value was 185.538 billion yuan, and the industrial output value was 139.179 billion yuan. The total imports and exports increased rather fast to 1,876.37 million US dollars. The total retail sales of consumer goods was 49.054 billion yuan; total provincial government revenue was 14.005 billion yuan.
8. People' s Life: By the end of 1997, Shaanxi had labor force 23.925 million people. The total wages of staff and workers was 20.457 billion yuan, and the average wage of staff and workers was 5,184 yuan, total social insurance and welfare funds of employed and retired staff and workers were 6.169 billion yuan. The per capita net income of rural residence was 1,285 Yuan. The living space per capita for urban residence was 11.97 m², and for rural residence was 19.92 m². The average household consumption was 1,835 yuan, 1,188 for rural residence and 4,356 for urban residence. The number of hospital beds per 10,000 persons was 9.04, and number of doctors per 10,000 persons was 6.23.
9. Education: Because of certain historical reasons, the average education level of population in Shaanxi is relatively low. By the end of 1997, the higher education institutions in Shaanxi Province with number of student enrollment 141,000 and teachers 19,300; secondary schools with number of student enrollment 2,015,500 and teachers126,600; primary schools with number of student enrollment 4,899,300 and teachers180,700.

Top of page

The total population of Shanxi in 1997 was 35.701 million, among the middle level of all provinces. The distribution of population in south, north, and center parts of Shanxi is uneven. Over half of the total population living in Guanzhong plain which accounts for only 26.94% of the total land. Such a situation is due to natural environment, geography and economic development level. The rural population was always more than urban population before 1996. With the rural fertility rate decline and rural-to-urban migration in recent years, the proportion of rural population decreased gradually. In 1997, the rural population was 12.91 million while the urban population was 22.79 million.

The development of Shanxi population can be divided into six phases:

1949-1957: with the recovery and development of economy, the population mortality declined rapidly, plus a large amount of in-migrants, the first high peak of population growth appeared with an annual rate 4%, over 600 thousand increment annually.

1958-1961: the people¢ s livelihood and health was affected by the economic difficulties and natural disasters, but thanks to the fine agricultural foundation, the negative population growth rate did not turned up which was observed in many other provinces. In this period, the population increase rate was 2.22%.

1962-1973: with the recovery of national economy, the birth rate increased continuously. Especially in the period of Culture Revolution, the birth lost control completely with an annual rate of 2.38%, about 738.1 thousand increment annually. This cohort of large population had negative influence on the later development of social economy and population plan.

1974-1985: the family planning was carried out in the whole province, and the population growth was controlled to some degree with an annual increase rate of 1.17%.

1986-1992: In spite of the third peak of population growth due to the second one from 60s to 70s, the total population increased with an annual rate of 1.8%, because of the important role of family planning.

1993-now: the population growth has been kept at a low speed. During the five years from 1993 to 1997, the annual increase rate was 1.02%.

The sex ratio of Shaanxi population was always above the average national level, around 108-109 since 1980s. As a result of high sex ratio before and in the early 50s, the sex ratio of older age group is too high. In addition, the sex ratio at birth is also high. In 1997, population of age 0-14 made up 27.63% of the total population; 15-64 population accounted for 66.52%; 65 and above 5.85%. The elderly-child ratio was 21.17% and the median age was 28.37. The total dependency ratio was 50.33%, with the ratio of children 41.53% and of aged 8.80%. The age structure of Shaanxi has reached the upper-limit of adult type and is at the door of an old population.

Shaanxi is one of the provinces with a high population increase rate. In 1950s and 1960s, the total fertility rate (TFR) was at a high level, nearly 6. Since the 70s, the TFR declined rapidly due to family planning. However, there are still regional differences: lower in well-developed areas while higher in less-developed areas. In 1997, the birth rate was 13.31‰, the natural increase rate was 7.62‰ and the TFR was 1.5. According to population projections in three scenarios of high, medium and low, the total population of Shaanxi will still increase in the early of next century. It will become a zero-increase population at about 2035, and then decrease.

With the development of economy, culture and public health, mortality of Shaanxi declined quickly, especially the infant mortality rate. The female mortality is lower than that of males. Urban mortality declined more rapidly than that of rural¢ s. The mortality of Shaanxi in 1954 was 11.05‰ and in 1997 it was 6.28‰.

In 1958, the life expectancy of Shaanxi was 53, and it rose to 67.9 for males and 72.21 for females in 1990, according to the 4th national census.

The growth of population without control in the 60s and 70s led to the peak of marriage-age population and currently-married population in the 80s and 90s. Early marriage and more children is very popular in rural areas than that in urban areas. The proportion of currently-married is higher among rural females than urban, while that of rural males is higher only in 19-29 age-group. Rural males have more difficulties in get married. In 1997, of the total 26.249 million population aged 15 and above, males were 13.335 million and females were 12.914 million; of the currently-married population of first marriage, males were 9.444 million and females 9.762 million; of the currently-married population of second marriage, males were 176 thousand and females 206 thousand; of the divorced population, males were 133 thousand and females 52 thousand; of the widowed population, males were 527 thousand and males 995 thousand.

The average family size of Shaanxi was above national level. In 1997, the former was 3.88 while the latter was 3.64. However, the size of family household has been decreasing. The family size of cities and counties were smaller than that of rural areas. The families were mainly in two-generation structure and families of one couple were increasing gradually.

The increase rate of old population was faster than that of total population. In 1997, the population aged 65 and above made up 5.9% of the total population and had reached the upper limit of an adult population. In addition, the age structure of elderly is also becoming older. It is estimated that the population of Shaanxi will become an aged one in the first decade of next century, and reach the peak in 2020s, then will subside in 2040s and 2050s. So the establishment of old-age support system should be paid much attention.

The baseline of education of Shaanxi is lower, and the illiteracy rate is always above the national level. There is also regional difference between rural and urban areas. Women have fewer opportunities of receiving education. In recent years, under the principle of “develop the country depends on science and technology”, the proportion of educated population is increasing. In 1997, it reached 85.5%.

Shaanxi is a less-developed inland province, the migration progressed slower than that of well-developed areas. There were mainly intra-province migrations. In 1997, there were 514.5 thousand in-migrants, among them 438 thousand were from the same province and 76.5 thousand from other provinces. Among 446.5 thousand emigrated, the intra-provincial migrants were 373 thousand and the inter-provincial migrants were 73.5 thousand. The intra-migration was much more than inter-migration.

The distribution of population and resources can be divided into three areas. In the northern part, land resources are rich but the soil erosion is serious and the economic level is low. Guanzhong has lands of high quality, and the agricultural condition is fine, but the fresh water resource is scarce, the population density is high, and the employment problem is very serious. In the southern part, there are rich mineral resources and water power resource, but the area is mountainous, farmland is scarce, and population density is very high and with a lot below poverty line.

The distribution of population, labor resources and technological human resources is on the contrary of that of natural resources. Water shortage, poor per capita resources, soil erosion, desert encroachment and deterioration of ecological environment are all problems need to be solved immediately.

Top of page