Yunnan

I. Basic Figures

1. Name: Yunnan Province
2. Areas: 394,100 square kilometers
3. Population: 41.589 million (total registered population by the end of 1997)
4. Capital: Kunming City
5. Geography: Yunnan is located in southwestern China, between 97° 31'39"-106° 11'47" east longitude and 21° 8'32"-29° 15'8" north latitude; surrounded by Guizhou, Guangxi, Sichuan and Tibet, and borders Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam. It is a highland province with a terraced topographical feature stretching from the northwest to the southeast, resulting in a diversity of elevations and climates.
6. Natural Resources: As one of the largest provinces in China, Yunnan abounds in land resources(per capita land area about 16 mu). However, cultivated land constitutes only a small part, owing to steep mountains. In addition, Yunnan has large areas of forest, although distributed unevenly. Furthermore, it has 230 million mu of grassland.

Yunnan is rich in mineral resources, especially non-ferrous metals. With the greatest number of wild animal species in China, Yunnan is known as a "kingdom for wild animals". Xishuangbanna, with its picturesque landscape and rich wildlife, is a major tourist attraction.

7. Economy: In 1997, the province's GNP amounted to RMB164.423 billion, total industrial and agricultural output value reached RMB205.212 billion, total import and export volume nearly US$2 billion, fiscal revenue RMB15.042 billion and grain output 12.72 million tons. A major hallmark of Yunnan is the multi-ethnicity of its inhabitants. Burdened by a large population, Yunnan is one of the poorest provinces in China.
8. People's life: According to 1997 year end statistics, Yunnan had a working population of 22.24 million, making up 53.5% of the province's total population; total wages of staff and workers amounted to RMB21.908 billion and total insurance and welfare expenses of staff and workers added up to RMB2,793.419 million. Rural per capita net income reached RMB1,375.50; average annual wage of staff and workers was RMB7,037; per capita annual income available for living cost for urban residents was RMB4,927.18; per capita consumption was RMB1,982. In addition, there were on average 15.49 hospital beds and 14.43 doctors and nurses for every 10,000 persons.
9. Education:1997 year end statistics show that there were all together 26 institutions of higher learning in the province, with an enrollment of over 57,400 students and a faculty of 7,690; 2,603 secondary schools with an enrollment of more than 1,653,700 students and 102,535 teachers; and 23,724 primary schools with an enrollment of 4,837,100 pupils and a faculty of 189,129. Since the 1960s, Yunnan has made remarkable improvements in the overall educational level of its population, which can be seen from the increasing number of people with all kinds of education, the increase of average years of education received and the development of all types of school education.

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II. Population Situation

1. Size and Distribution

Statistics indicate that Yunnan had a registered permanent population of 41.589 million by the end of 1997. Most of its population lives in the eastern river basins, however, the western mountainous and semi-mountainous areas are sparsely populated. Vertically, it is dense in the middle and sparse in both the southern and northern areas. Such distribution may be partly due to its special topographical features, and partly its agricultural conditions, socio-economic development and population growth. In addition, Yunnan is also a multi-national province, which according to the 1990 census, had all together 51 ethnic groups, one of the three provinces (autonomous regions) who has an ethnic population of over 10 million.

2. Population History

Since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, population development in Yunnan has much in common with the rest of the country, but also with its own characteristics. Meanwhile, it has the typical population features that usually emerge in under-developed economy. Between 1949-1990, except for some given years, the total population had been increasing all the time, and the net added also increasing year by year, reaching the summit in the early 1980s. The development of Yunnan's population over the past 40 years can be described as "increasing-leveling off-fast increasing-increasing-slow increasing". It is relatively slow, compared to the trend prevailing in the country. Only since 1979 did Yunnan's population begin to develop substantially and was held under control. Since then, its population has kept increasing slightly, and a reproductive model of "low birth rate, low death rate and low natural increase rate" has taken shape.

3. Population Structure by Sex and Age

Sex ratio in Yunnan has been on the increase since the first national census in 1953. It was over 100, according to the third census conducted in 1982, and hovering over 100 and continuing to rise afterwards. Sex ratio of the total population rose to 105.67 in 1990 when the fourth census was organized. However, it is still normal. In addition, there exist some differences between different age groups, regions and ethnic groups.

In 1997, in the total population, 11.338 million aged 0-14, accounting for 27.26% of the total, 27.678 million aged 15-64, 66.55% of the total, and 2.573 million aged 65 or over, 6.19% of the total. Total dependency ratio stood at 50.26%, with the child and aged dependency ratio 40.96% and 9.29% respectively.

4. Fertility Level and Changes

Women's fertility model in Yunnan has changed greatly since the 1980s, featuring an increased proportion of young age groups. Age-specific peak fertility had dropped from 262.96 per thousand in 1981 to 234.21 per thousand in 1989, with childbearing relatively concentrated on some given age groups. In 1997, the birth rate was 20.82 per thousand, and natural increase rate 12.91 per thousand. Four-variant projections reveal that TFR of Yunnan's women of childbearing age will keep dropping at a speed lower than in the 1980s. The successive 17 years of baby booms in the 1960s-1970s will certainly exert strong influences on the development process. However, projections show that the birth rate will go downwards in a certain period since the mid-1990s. It is estimated that the total population will amount to 42.40 million by 2000, 46.13 million by 2010 and 48.74 million by 2020, and tends to decline after the year 2040.

5. Mortality and Life Expectancy

Mortality of Yunnan's population has been remaining on a higher level than the national average since 1953, however, the tendency of its change is identical to the national's. The death rate was 7.92 per thousand in 1990 and 7.91 in 1997, making no much difference over the recent years. Major characteristics include: peak of death rate moving to older age groups; infant mortality rate drastically dropping; age-specific death rate curve switching from U-shaped to J-shaped; and a difference in the death rate between regions and between urban and rural areas, and in terms of ethnic background and sex. The difference is attributed to the age composition of its population and the socio-economic development. Thanks to the decline of child mortality, the average life expectancy of Yunnan's population reached 64.55 years in 1990, 2.93 years older than 61.62 in 1981, but a difference still existed between different regions and between urban and rural areas, and in terms of ethnic background and sex.

6. Marriage Status, Family Size and Type

Since the 1980s, early marriage has been meager in Yunnan among the population aged 15 and over. Few people get married before the age of 20. As for sex, the proportion of unmarried male is apparently higher than the female, and this is also true of each age group. Among the unmarried people, sex ratio is higher in the middle and lower in both ends. The proportion of people remaining single lifetime is low, and more male than female. For the total population, the rate of remaining unmarried is on the decrease.

In 1997, population aged 15 and over totaled 30.251 million in Yunnan, of which 15.223 million were male and 15.027 million were female. Of these people, 3,775,000 were unmarried male and 2,517,000 were unmarried female; 10.248 million were first time married male currently with spouses and 10.556 million were female; 467,000 were remarried male currently with spouses and 456,000 were female; 164,000 were divorced male and 145,000 were female; and 570,000 were widowed male and 1,353,000 were female.

Yunnan's total population growth has been brought under effective control over the past 20 years, however, with the socio-economic development, the total number of households is on the rise while the scale is on the decrease. In addition, there is a difference in the family size between urban and rural areas, between different regions and ethnic backgrounds. Usually, there are more members in the ethnic minority families than in Han families, and the difference between urban and rural areas is narrowing.

In terms of household type, the province is dominated by two-generation households, with three or more generation households still constituting a certain part. Furthermore, there is a significant difference between urban and rural areas. Overall, families are downsizing and nuclear family is increasing. In 1997, the average household scale is 3.95 persons.

7. Aging of Population

According to the 1990 fourth census, Yunnan had already become an adult society then, with the aged population making up 7.67% of the total. Since then, Yunnan's population continued to become old and the pace is becoming fast with the implementation of family planning program and raising of people's living standards. It is estimated that the province's aged population will reach 4,770,900 by the year 2008, 10.42% of the total population, then it will enter an aged society.

8. Population Quality

The fourth census conducted in 1990 shows that the overall education attainments of Yunnan's population had improved considerably over the 26 years since 1964. The number of people with all kinds of education in every 100,000 was increasing and the average time of receiving education and the number of all types of schools were also on the rise.

According to 1997 statistics, Yunnan had a population of 465,000 with college education and over, 2.209 million with senior middle school education, 7.990 million with junior middle school education and 18.44 million with primary school education. Nonetheless, there is a long way ahead Yunnan to keep up with the reform and opening up. Continuous efforts should be made to strengthen the work to keep people aged 15-44 from illiteracy, to raise school attendance rate of school-age children, and stabilize the enrollment rate of in-school students.

9. Migration and Population Floating

The 1990 census indicates that between 1985-1990, the volume of inter-provincial migration of Yunnan ranked only 20th in the country's 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, while its total population came the 14th place, showing that the migration population is small in Yunnan. Of all the migration population, 531,800 were inter-provincial migrants, constituting 42.07% of the total. Yunnan is among the provinces with a high proportion of inter-provincial migration. Of the 531,800 migrants, 254,300 were in-migrating and 277,400 out-migrating, with a net of 23,100 out-migrants.

A large regional difference exists in inter-provincial migration. Southwestern China's provinces was the largest destination for migrants from Yunnan, followed by southern, eastern and northeastern provinces. However, intra-provincial migration still dominates. The foremost underlying reason for population migration is economic development, especially for male migrants, while most women usually migrate for other reasons.

Data from the 1990 census show that the migrating population in Yunnan totaled 907,900 in the same year, accounting for 1.61% of the province's total population. In addition, population migration and flow in Yunnan demonstrates some features typical of under-developed economy, very different from that of the coastal eastern and inland provinces. However, with the accelerating of reform and economic development in the western areas and expansion of border trade, Yunnan's population migration and flow will certainly develop at a faster speed and some new characteristics will emerge accordingly.

10. Population, Resources and Environment

Yunnan is not rich in farmland resources. Despite its ample water resources, the distribution is unbalanced between different regions and in different seasons, which still results in water shortage in many regions in the province. In addition, the deteriorating water environment in recent years further aggravates the situation. Desertification of grassland and pastureland, damaged eco-environment plus human's brutal slaughtering have put some rare animal breeds on the verge of destruction.

Total grain output in this province keeps increasing, however, per capita share remains unchanged, lower than the national average. Furthermore, to meet the needs of the ever increasing population, natural resources such as forest, land and water continue to be damaged, air pollution becomes more serious and the ecological equilibrium tends to be broken, resulting in the breakout of various calamities more frequently, more seriously and more widely.

11. Ethnic population

Yunnan is the second largest ethnic-inhabited province in China, one of the country's three provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) with an ethnic population of over 10 million. According to the 1990 census, there were 51 ethnic groups living in Yunnan with a total population of 12.358 million. As a result, it has a variety of spoken and written languages, cultures and religions, as well as the form of marriage and family, and the foundation for population development. The distribution of ethnic population is complicated and generally tends to develop in the direction of scattering and intermingling with each other.

Birth rate and women's fertility rate for the ethnic minorities are higher than Hans in the province and the national averages, however, their overall education attainment is lower than the provincial and national levels. Two- and three-generation families account for an overwhelming majority of the ethnic households. In addition, the structure of occupation for the ethnic peoples is rather backward, compared with Hans, however, it develops at a quicker pace than Hans to meet the needs of the modern economy.

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