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National Statistics: Gender, Age Imbalance Lingering in China

| Jan 21, 2015 06:10 AM EST

A chart from 2011 shows the lingering gender imbalance in China.

The most recent national census results released on Tuesday revealed the continuing imbalance among the 1.36 billion-populace, with men outnumbering women in China.

According to the latest statistics disclosed by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's population has increased by 7.1 million by the end of 2014.

The survey, which excludes Chinese territories such as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, also revealed a heightened difference in the population of men and women in the country, recording about 700 million males and 667 million females.

This, according to several analysts, reflects that the country is still under the traditional gender preference among Chinese families, particularly in the rural parts of the country.

"Men may have difficulties finding partners and getting married, with relationship stability suffering as a result. This could lead to social problems such as sex-related crimes, human trafficking and even children trafficking," said Yuan Xin from the Institute of Population and Development at Nankai University.

Explaining to the Global Times, Yuan also cited that the imbalance among men and women had been a lingering issue in the country which has stayed for more than 30 years.

He emphasized that the government could actually do something to help promote gender equality by providing more benefits or incentives to families who choose to bear female babies.

"The government should enforce regulations against illegal checks of fetus gender and abortions that occur as a result," he added.

The recent records also show an alarmingly increased aging population where workers aged between 16 and 60 have decreased to 915 million, while those aged over 60 reached to about 15.5 percent of the total population.

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