1. Name: Gansu Province
2. Areas: 390 thousand km
3. Population: 24.940 million (by the end of 1997)
4. Provincial Capital: Lanzhou City
5. Geography: Gansu lies in the juncture of three highlands: Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, Inner-Mongolia Plateau and Huangtu Plateau, and is bounded on the east of Shanxi, on the west of Xinjiang, on the south of Sichuan, on the north of Inner-Mongolia, Ningxia and Mongolia. Most areas of Gansu are plateau and mountainous with an altitude above 1000 m.
6. Natural Resources: Gansu is rich of minerals, 111 types have been found till now. It is also rich in water power because Bailong River, the branch of Yangzie River, and Huanghe River flow through Gansu. But the precipitation is scarce and not regular, so Gansu is also a drought province. Gansu has large land resource as well, but the percentage of utilizable land is low, the proportion of cultivated land is small and the capacity of land is low. Gansu also has plentiful biological resources, especially Chinese herbal medicine, and it is one of the most important Chinese herbal medicine production areas.
7. Economy: In 1997, the gross domestic product of Gansu was 78.134 billion yuan, and the per capita GDP was 3,137 yuan; the gross industrial and agricultural output value was128.198 billion yuan, the total imports and exports was 552.12 million US dollars; and the total provincial government revenue was 4691.43 million yuan; the yield of grain was 7.6616 million tons. Compared with other provinces in China, the economic level of Gansu is still low. The situation could was showed as the weak economic and technological foundation of resources exploitation, the low degree of resources exploitation, poor industry foundation, incapable communication and transportation, monotonous economic structure, less developed agriculture production, government revenue problem, capital shortage, and so on.
8. People's life: By the end of 1997, Gansu had labor force of 17.3260 million people, made 69.47% of the total provincial population; the labor force resource utilization rate was 88.33%. The total wages of staff and workers was 1,5310.2480 million yuan, and the total social insurance and welfare funds of employed and retired staff and workers were 5,046.285 million yuan. The average wage of staff and workers was 6,073 yuan, and the per capita net income of rural residence was 1,210 yuan. The per capita annual disposable income of urban households was 3,592.43 yuan. The average household consumption was 1,629 yuan, 975 for rural residence and 4,397 for urban residence. The number of hospital beds per 10,000 persons was 2.18, and the number of doctors per 10,000 persons was 3.27.
9. Education: In 1997, there were 17 institutions of higher education, with a number of student enrollment 50,678 and 6,403 teachers; 373 specialized secondary schools with a number of student enrollment 138,928 and 13,424 teachers; 22,848 primary schools with the number of 2,992.795 thousand students and 130,628 teachers. The school-age children enrollment rate is 97.68%. Although education developed at a rapid speed never seen before, the overall education level is still very low, and the nine-year compulsory education does not popularize in the whole province. So education must be paid much more attention later, efforts such as raising the education investment and improving the educational facilities should be taken. Meanwhile, illiteracy-alleviation movement should be carried out firmly.

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1. Size and Distribution

According to the sampling survey on population change (1997), by the end of 1997, the total population of Gansu is 24.942 million, 1.11% more than the 24.6686 million by the end of 1996, and increased by 273.4 thousand persons. Because of the difference in the natural environment, the economic level and social development level in different parts of the province, the population is unevenly distributed and the population density differ greatly, which shows an obvious vertical distribution. Furthermore, urban population is extremely concentrated.

The apparent differences at fertility, mortality and migration in various periods of time lead to the periodical change of total population.

In 1950~1958, the population grew at a high speed. Except for 1954, the annual increase rate was always above 20‰ and in 1956 reached its highest of 54.8‰. During this period, the total population of Gansu increased from 9.6845 million in 1949 to 12.8148 million in 1959.

1959~1960 was the low ebb of population growth. Except that in 1959 the increase rate was 9.08‰, the rate of the other two years is below zero, -37.95‰ and -26.70‰.

1962~1973 was another phase of rapid increase. During the 12 years, the total population rose from 12.1082 million in 1961 to 17.4214 million in 1973, 3.08% increment for each year in average.

In 1974-1984, the population growth was under control, and the growth rate declined rapidly. The annual increase rate was 1.38%.

During 1985-1990, the development of Gansu's population was put into the legal management. The family planning program was perfected gradually and population issues became aware of. The population growth rate bounced back from a low level 13.02‰ in 1984 to 16.46‰ in 1990. The total population increased from 20.5588 million to 22.5467 million in 1990.

By the end of 1997, male population of Gansu was 12.7857 million, female population 12.1563 million, the sex ratio was 105.18. Compared with 107.18 in 1982, 107.56 in 1990 and 106.35 in 1995, the sex ratio decreased gradually by 2.9, 3.3, and 1.17. The sex ratio at birth in 1997 was 124.17, much higher than 110.38 in 1990 when the 4th National Population Census was conducted, this was mainly because of the under-report of female babies.

In 1997, Gansu's population of age 0-14 was 6.964 million, 27.48% of the total provincial population. The population of age 15-64 was 17.166 million, 67.74% of the total; and the population of 65+ was 1.029 million, 4.77% of the total. The population of Gansu is still an adult population.

The total fertility rate has been declining smoothly since 1970s, always below 4. Since 1980s, except for1982, the TFR was kept below 3 and it reached 2.3 in 1997. The birth rate of Gansu in 1997 was 17.22‰ and the newborns were 427.2 thousand. By projection, from 1996 to 2004 the number of newborns will decrease fast. But from 2005 to 2012, there will be another small peak of birth. From 2013-2030, the number of newborns will decrease again.

The change of mortality of Gansu experienced an apparent “decrease first, rise then, decrease again, finally stable” pattern. The overall trend is declining gradually. The age-specific mortality has become a typical "J" shape since the third national census. The mortality of 0-14 age group declined greatly while the mortality of 15-64 age group dropped slightly and continually. The mean age of death become older and death mainly happened in aged population. The mortality of Gansu declined from 14‰ in 1953 to 6.20‰ in 1997.

Since the foundation of P.R.C, the life expectancy of Gansu improved rapidly from 59.7 in 1957 to 68.92 in 1989. There was no significant difference in life expectancy between urban and rural areas. The infant mortality rate and child mortality rate in rural areas is higher than that of urban areas, and there is a great regional difference in life expectancy. It is estimated that by 2010, the life expectancy of Gansu will reach 70.4.

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In 1990, the never-married population of Gansu were 4.2552 million, and proportion of never married was 26.41%, among them the male never-married population were 2.5280 million, made 30.26% of the total, and the female never-married population were 1.7272 million, made 22.26% of the total. The sex ratio of never-married population was high, it shows a trend of increase.

In the early 50s, the average size of family was 5.09. In 1990 it was 4.55. According to the result of the 4th National Census, the family size declined in a wavy pattern. In 1950s, the family size enlarged progressively. In 1960s, however, it declined first and rose again. In 1970s and 1980s, it dropped gradually. The change of family size of Gansu shows some characters: the family size is becoming smaller, and small family is becoming dominant in urban areas while middle-sized family takes the first place in rural areas. There was a clear regional difference in family size. The dominant type of family in Gansu was two-generation household, which accounted for 66.18% of all households, and the next was three-generation household, which accounted for 27.50% of all households. The percentage of other family types was very small.

During 1982~1990, the education level of Gansu's population improved greatly. The illiteracy rate dropped and the illiterate population decreased. The proportion of population received education increased, especially for middle-school level and above. But compared with the national educational level, there is still a long way to go, for example, the illiteracy rate in one or two areas increased, and the level of illiteracy rate was still the second of China. In addition, there are many other problems such as the uneven distribution of qualified personnel and the unreasonable educational structure.

During 1982-1987, most of the population immigrating Gansu were from foreign provinces for variety of reasons, such as seeking refuge with relatives and friends; retirement; job transfer; marriage and so on. The education level of immigration population was higher than that of the host population. From 1985 to 1990, the direction of migration changed due to the difference in economic development and people' livelihood in different provinces. During this period, the net emigration was 81.5 thousand accounting for 0.36 % of the whole provincial population. The immigration reasons changed to economic causes such as job transfer; looking for new jobs; doing business and so on. The male population migrated much more than female population. County to city migration was the main pattern of intra-migration and the education level of migrated people was lower.

The per capita resource declined continuously with the rapid growth of population. The conflict between limited resources and fast population growth became more serious. The per capita farmland decreased also, and the water resource per capita is tight too. Furthermore the per capita deposit of minerals is declining due to the overexploitation. The forest coverage rate is at a low level. The economic activity led to the over-exploitation of natural resources, which deepened the conflict between human and environment.

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