Tianjin

Basic Figures

1. Name: Tianjin Municipality
2. Areas: 11,919.7 square kilometers
3. Population: 9,523,900 ( the total number of permanent residents by the end of 1997)
4. Geography: It is located in the middle of the Golden Seashore in North China. To the north is Yan Mountain and to the east is Bo Sea. It borders Beijing and is the gateway to the sea of the vast northern and northwestern part of China. It has the semi humid continental monsoon climate of the Temperate Zone.
5. Natural Resources: There has been discovered more than 20 kinds of core deposit worthy extracting. The main metals and non-metals are as follows: manganese, gold, tungsten, molybdenum, copper, aluminum, lead, actinium, zinc, limestone, heavy spar, natural oilstone. Crude oil and natural gas are the main fuels. In addition, Tianjin has many historical sites and boasts plenty of unearthed cultural relics. The architectures in Tianjin have unique style. Its famous four folk arts contribute to the exploration and development of its tourism.
6. Economy: The GDP in 1997 totaled RMB 124.025 billion with per capita GDP being RMB 13,700. The total revenue amounted to RMB 16.912 billion. The retail price index was 100.7% and the consumer price index was 103.1%. The total investment in fixed asset reached RMB 49.59 billion and the total volume of retail sales was RMB 53.025 billion. The total volume of import and export arrived at USD 10.023 billion.
7. People's Life: The total amount of pay in 1997 to the employees was RMB 23.159 billion with average per capita annual pay being RMB 8,239. The disposable income of urban population was RMB 6,608.56 and the average per capita consumption expenditure RMB 5,204. The average living area per person was 7.9 square meters. There were 114.6 sets of television and 97 sets of refrigerator for every 100 households. Every 100 persons have 36.9 sets of telephone. In 1997, the average per capita income for farmers was RMB 3,548 and the consumption expenditure was RMMB 2,110. The living space per capita in rural area was 21.74 square meters. Every 100 farmer households have 123 sets of television and 56 sets of refrigerator. By the end of 1997, 1,645,000 employees have bought the pension insurance policy and 657,000 retirees participated in the pension system. The total number of beds in hospitals was 40,800 and the number of medical personnel was 70,400. There are 42.8 beds and 73.9 medical staff for every 10,000 population.
8. Education: By 1997, there were 20 high education institutions with 73,630 enrolled students and 20,775 teachers. It has 1,108 medium education institutions with 693,918 students at school, and 3,030 primary schools with 877,544 pupils. The education level in Tianjin has improved in comparison with its past. It is above the national average level, but appreciably lower than that of Beijing and Shanghai.

2. Population Situation

1. Size and Distribution

Tianjin is one the four cities under the direct administration of the central government and one important economic center in North China. By the end of 1997, the total population of permanent residents in it is 9,525,900. With the high concentration of industrial and social activities, Tianjin presents great attraction to people, taking on the feature of the uneven distribution of population evident in big cities. Most of the population lives in the city proper and most of those in the city proper live in downtown districts. The population density in downtown districts is relatively high. The population in coastal areas is relatively concentrated in Tanggu, Hangu and Dagang districts. The population density is higher in plain area than in mountainous area and that in high plain is greater than that in low plain. There is a trend that the population density in the bank areas down along the flow of rivers is higher that in the bank up against the flow of rivers. A trend is emerging that the population is being concentrated in areas along rivers.

2. Population History

Since the foundation of the PR.China, the administrative layout of Tianjin went through several changes and hence the changes in the total population, presenting the difficulty in measuring the actual change in the total population. The change in Tianjin’s total population shows the general trend of the steady growth in absolute number and of the relative increase. The changes experienced the following three stages: the first stage (1949-1964) saw the rapid growth of the total population by 3.03% each year; the second stage (1965-1979) witnessed the slow growth of the total population at the annual rate of 1.06% and in the third stage ( 1980 to present time) the population grows steadily. From 1980 to 1990, the annual growth rate was 1.27%. Since 1990, the annual growth rate keeps at the rate lower than 0.8%. The population situation maintains the positive trend that it grows at a steady and slow speed.

3. Population Structure by Sex and Age

The general sex ratio of the Tianjin population has always been around 100:102. The sex ratio does not change much and the ratio value is small, ranking low among the 30 provinces of the country. According to the statistics from the sample survey in 1997, in the current 9,678,000 population, the 0-14 group has the population of 1,934,000, taking up 19.98% of the total population; the 15-64 group 6,929,000, accounting for 71.59% and the 65 and above group has the population of 815,000, constituting 8.4% of the total population. The overall dependence coefficient is 39.68% with the children dependence coefficient being 27.91% and the elderly dependence coefficient being 11.77%. The mean age in the population is 34.87 years old.

4. Fertility Level and Changes

Tianjin is one of the cities implementing the population program at an earlier time. During the period between the mid of the 60’s when the family planning was advocated and the end of the 80’s, the population development has been well on a planned track. With the unique environment enjoyed by the big city, the total fertility rate of Tianjin couples declines very rapidly. Since 1989, the reproduction of the Tianjin population has been relatively at the steady and low level. The fluctuation trend in the total fertility has been characterized by the low level and high imbalance between districts.

The birth rate of the Tianjin population has been on the decrease since 1993 and reached the record low over 90’s in 1997. The main reasons are 1) the decrease of women’s fertility year after year and 2) the achievement made in the family planning program.


5. Mortality and Life Expectancy

In the 80’s, the size of the died population in Tianjin is 454,600, 1200 less than that of 455,800 in 70’s, showing a smaller scale of died population in 1980’s. The mortality rate in Tianjin has been steady at 0.6%. Since 1993, there has appeared a rising trend due a large part to the aging population with more people entering into old age each year.

The regularly made statistics shows that over the 10 years in 80’s, the life expectancy of Tianjin has considerably improved. The average life expectancy at birth has increased from 70.70 in 1980 to 74.44 in 1991.

6. Marriage Status, Family Size and Type

The sample survey in 1997 on the change of the population shows the following change in the marital status of the Tianjin population: the increase in the proportion of the unmarried population, the decrease in the proportion the population without spouses and the slight increase of the divorced and widowed population.

In 1997, among the 7,744,000 population of the 15 and above group, the male population was 3,818,000 and the female 3,926,000. The unmarried men numbered 671,000 and the unmarried women 538,000. Men of the first marriage having spouses totaled 2,918,000 and women 2,989,000. The number of men of the non-first marriage having spouses was 61,000 and women 56,000. There were 41,000 divorced men and 26,000 divorced women. Widowed men totaled 127,000 and widowed women 317,000.

7. Aging of Population

With the decrease in fertility and natural population growth, aging is gradually speeding up. According the residential records, the population of 65 and above rose by net 17,200 from 760,800 in 1996 to 778,000 in 1997, up 2.26%. The figure in 1997 is 185,900 higher than that of 1990, up 31.40%. The percentage of the 65 and above population accounts for 8.65% of the total population, 0.18% and 1.81% higher respectively than that in 1996 and 1997. The ration between the elderly ( 65 and above) and the young ( 14 and below) rose from 43.36 in 1996 to 46.63%. The rise of this ratio shows that the number of the elderly to be supported is becoming bigger, leading to the increase in the elderly dependence coefficient from 11.76% in 1996 to 11.88%. The mean age in the population went up from 34.18 in 1996 to 34.87.

8. Population Quality

With the development of education and the change in the population age structure, the education level of the population is improving. According to the sample survey in 1997 on changes in population, the educated population of 6 and above takes up 85.38% of the total population, 5.75% and 0.91% higher than the figure obtained from the fourth census in 1990 and that from the sample survey in 1996 respectively. The illiterate population of 15 and above declined by 1.09% and 0.57% respectively. Those figures show the overall education of the total population has improved.

With regard to the mix of the education level, the percentage of the various educated groups as against the total population is as follows: college and above, 6.82%; high school, 17.88%; middle high school, 32.56% and primary school, 28.11%. The education level of the population is moving upward.

9. Migration and Population Floating

The residential statistics show that both the outflow and inflow migrating population in 1997 increased to different extent over those in 1996. On balance, there was a net inflow migrants of 10,500. A decrease of 45.08% occurred compared with the net annual inflow migrants of 19,300 during the “ Eighth Five Years”, indicating that with the development of the market economy, the migration of permanent residents became more active and that the gap between the outflow and the inflow migration is narrowing. By district, the migration features in Tianjin are as follows: 1) The bulk of both outflow and inflow migration take place in the downtown districts; 2) Other districts rank second in terms of the net inflow migration and 3) Binhai District and other five suburb counties experienced the net outflow migration due to the increase in outflow migration.

Since the 80’s, the scale of migration has been expanding considerably characterized by the rapid growth rate, the large percentage of economically active migration and the long period of residence. The inflow migrants constitute one-tenth of the total population in Tianjin.

10. Population, Resources and Environment

      Tianjin is not rich in land, water and mineral resources. The rapid growth of population worsens the relative lack of resources in Tianjin. It is one of the heavily polluted areas. In recent years, some progress has been made in the protection of environment and the environment quality has been maintained steady. In the 1997 appraisal of 37 cities with regard to the comprehensive management of city environment, Tianjin was appraised as one of “the ten best” once again.