The 1953 Chinese census, officially the First National Population Census of the People's Republic of China, was conducted by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

starting on June 30, 1953. The results were summarized in Chinese newspapers on November 1, 1954. As the full results were not published, they had to subsequently be assembled from Soviet sources over the next five years.

Results

Total population

The official summaries listed the total population of

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

in 1953 as 582,603,417.

Demographics

13.26% of the population (77,257,282 persons) were listed as residing in urban areas comprising 163 cities, Chinese: , p ''shì''. (103 locations with a population greater than 100,000 and 60 others considered to be major economic centers.) industrial and mining districts, t , s , p ''gōngkuàngchù'', w ''kung-k'uang ch'ü''. and about 1450 towns. t , s , p ''zhèn'', w ''chen''. Of the urban population, roughly 1 in 12 resided in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Distribution

Controversy

China had never previously had an official national census in the modern period and estimates of its population even in 1911 varied between 200,000,000 and 400,000,000. Mistrust of

PRC China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the second-most populous country after India, representing 17.4% of the world population. China spans the e ...

statistics that saw the number of cities go from 60 under the

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

government to 103 within four years and that involved "indirectly survey ng several areas including

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

led some Western academics like George Cressey to claim, "These inflated figures are designed to impress the world with China's strength, to support claims for a falling death rate, or to supply an excuse for food shortages."Cressey, George B. ''Land of the 500 Million'', p. 9. 1955. Op. cit. in Shabad, supra.

Notes

References

{{Census of China

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

1953 in China

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...