Migrant workers in China comprise the bulk of the population in many urban centers. (Photo : Reuters)
The National Bureau of Statistics has released on Feb. 26 official data which shows that China’s population reached 1.3678 in 2014, registering a 5.21-percent increase from the 2013 record.
The agency said that 7.1 million people were added to last year's population record. The figure was calculated by deducting the number of dead persons, which was 9.77 million, from the total number of birth, which is 16.87 million.
More than half of those who joined the survey were urban residents whose total number reached 74.9 million, which make up nearly 54.77 percent of the population.
The survey showed that migrant workers, who make up the majority of the populace, totaled 253 million.
The China Population Association (CPA) reported on Feb. 23 that a total of 16.9 million new births have been recorded in 2014, which is 470,000 higher than in the previous year.
The number of newborns yearly has decreased from more than 20 million to around 16 million since the 1990s, the CPA added. The lowest number of newborn recorded was in 2016, at 15.8 million.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission also noted that the number of women of childbearing age has decreased, while the number of births has increased as a result of birth policy changes.
The changes in the birth policy was first implemented in Zhejiang Province in January last year. Couples all over the country were allowed to have a second child if either parent is an only child of the family.
According to government data, the number of couples who applied to have a second child rose to 1 million by the end of 2014.
