Coordinating the Population Development Strategy and Realizing the Balanced Development of Population——Twenty-one Report of the Series of Economic and Social Development Achievements in the 40 Years of Reform and Opening up
MIL OSI Translation. Region: Peoples Republic of China – China Statistical Information Network – Chinese –
This year marks the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up. From the perspective of population development, according to the current average generation interval in China, 40 years is equivalent to the time of one generation. In this short period of time and many people, China's economy and society have undergone historic changes, and historical achievements have been made. The population size and structure have also undergone tremendous changes. The spatial distribution pattern of population has changed significantly, and the quality of the population has increased substantially.
1. The fertility policy has been adjusted and improved, and the total population has grown steadily
(1) The total population has grown steadily.
Since the reform and opening up, China's population has continued to grow steadily. In 1978, China's total population was 960 million. In 2017, it reached 1.39 billion, an increase of 430 million people, an average of more than 10 million people per year. In the past 40 years, China’s population has grown at an average annual rate of 0.9%, lower than the average annual growth rate of the world population. In terms of time, China's population growth has experienced a gradual change in speed from fast to slow, and from large to small. In the 1980s, the population grew at an average annual rate of 15.55 million. In the 1990s, the average annual growth rate fell to 12.73 million. In the 00s and 10s since the beginning of the 21st century, the average annual population growth has dropped to 7.45 million and 7.02 million respectively. people. The annual growth rate of the population has dropped from 1.9% in the 1970s to 0.6% since the 21st century, and the population growth rate has dropped rapidly. The change of population growth situation in China is not only the embodiment of the adjustment role of the birth policy, but also the result of the law of population development under the background of economic development and social change.
(2) The adjustment and improvement of the birth policy.
In the past 40 years, China's population policy has been constantly adjusted and improved in practice. After the founding of New China, with the development of economy and society, the improvement of people's living standards and the improvement of medical and health conditions, the population mortality rate in China has rapidly declined, and the total population has risen sharply. In 1978, China's population increased from 540 million people at the beginning of the founding of New China to 960 million people, and surged 420 million people in 29 years. The rapid population growth has brought tremendous pressure on economic and social development. In order to promote the coordinated development of population and resources and environment, the “National Advocacy and Promotion of Family Planning” was written into the Constitution in 1978. In 1980, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the issue on controlling population growth in China. The Open Letter to All Communist Party Members and Communist Youth League members elaborates on the urgency and importance of family planning from the perspective of thought and theory. The government set up a special population agency, implemented a family planning policy, revised and improved the marriage law and other measures to control the excessive population growth quickly spread across the country.
After decades of implementation of the family planning policy and the transformation of the concept of fertility accompanied by the improvement of economic development level and social transformation, the long-term high fertility rate has been effectively controlled, and the population growth rate has rapidly declined, entering a period of slow and low growth. At present, the internal dynamics and external conditions of China's population development have undergone a turning point, and the main contradiction of population development has changed from quantitative pressure to structural challenge. In the new era, the Party Central Committee scientifically grasps the law of population development, stands at the strategic height of the long-term development of the Chinese nation, moves from time to time, takes advantage of the trend, adjusts the birth policy in a timely manner, and promotes balanced population development. In 2013, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee decided to launch a separate two-child policy. At the end of 2015, the communique of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee proposed to promote balanced population development, improve the population development strategy, and fully implement the policy of a couple of children to have two children. Judging from the implementation effect of the comprehensive two-child policy, in 2016 and 2017, the birth population of China was 17.86 million and 17.23 million respectively, which was significantly higher than the average annual birth of 16.44 million during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. It has also increased from 40% in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period to over 50%, indicating that the adjustment of the birth policy has achieved remarkable results and played a positive role in optimizing the population structure.
(3) The concept of marriage and childbearing has undergone profound changes.
In the past 40 years, the endogenous dynamics of China's population development have shifted from mainly policy-driven to mainly driven by economic and social factors. The marriage and childbearing behavior of women of childbearing age in China and the structure of childbearing children have undergone significant changes.
The change of marriage and childbearing behavior of women of childbearing age is mainly reflected in the delay of the average age of first marriage and the average age of first child. From 1990 to 2017, the average age of first marriage for women of childbearing age in China was delayed by more than 4 years, from 21.4 years to 25.7 years, and continued to rise; the average age of first childbearing also increased from 23.4 years to 26.8 years.
From the distribution of childbearing births, in the past 40 years, women’s high births have declined significantly. From 1982 to 2017, the proportion of children aged three or more in China dropped from 30.3% to 6.7%. From 2000 to 2010, the proportion of births of one child in China remained above 60%. After the new round of policy adjustment in 2017, the proportion of childbearing births has declined, but low birth rate has become the mainstream choice. Overall, the implementation of the family planning policy for more than 30 years and the transformation of the concept of fertility brought about by economic and social development have made “senior students and eugenics” a voluntary choice for the majority.
(4) The population reproduction type has undergone major changes.
Since the reform and opening up, China's population development has gone through a different population development path than any other country with Chinese characteristics, and has completed a rapid demographic transition.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, with the improvement of social and economic development and medical standards, China's population mortality rate has dropped rapidly, and the birth rate was still above 30% until 1970. After the founding of the People's Republic of China and the early 1970s, China's population growth pattern showed obvious characteristics of “high birth rate, low mortality rate, and high natural growth rate”. Since then, under the dual role of birth policy and social and economic development, China's population growth model has rapidly changed. In 1980, China’s birth rate fell to 18.2‰, and the population growth pattern shifted from “high birth rate, low mortality rate, high natural growth rate” to “low birth rate, low mortality rate, low natural growth rate”. After 2001, China’s birth rate was always below 13‰, and the mortality rate remained at around 7‰. The fertility level and death level of the population remained low for a long time, realizing the transformation of population reproduction.
Second, from control restrictions to orderly flows, population movements shape vitality China
(1) Population movements are becoming increasingly active.
As a population phenomenon and socio-economic phenomenon, population mobility is affected by many factors. After the reform and opening up, China has ushered in a large-scale population movement with a population with a population moving from rural to urban areas and from underdeveloped areas to developed areas.
Limited by factors such as economic development, social environment and household registration system, China's floating population was relatively small in the early 1980s. In the third census in 1982, there were 6.57 million floating population in the country, accounting for only 0.7% of the total population. After the reform and opening up, the focus of the whole party's work shifted to economic construction, industrialization and urbanization accelerated, and a large number of labor forces liberated from the land came to the towns, became a floating population, and invested in the boom of urban construction and development. With the rapid development of the economy, China's population movement has entered a rare and active period in history. In 2000, the country had a floating population of more than 100 million people. In 2010, only 10 years later, the country’s floating population reached 221 million, and in 10 years it has grown by more than 100 million. Reflected in the regional distribution, the floating population mainly flows to the eastern region, and the urban agglomeration has gradually become the main spatial form of the floating population. The three major urban agglomerations such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region have gathered most of the floating population.
From 2010 to 2014, the total number of floating population increased at an annual rate of 8 million. In 2014, the total number of floating population reached 253 million, accounting for 18.5% of the total population. About one out of every five people has a floating population. In line with China's population movement trend and the needs of social development, the State Council promulgated the "Opinions on Further Promoting the Reform of the Household Registration System" in 2014, unified the registration of urban and rural household registration, facilitated the entry of floating population into the city, strengthened the basic public services of the resident population, and continuously improved Create opportunities for equal development for all. In 2017, the total floating population exceeded 200 million, accounting for nearly 18% of the total population. The size of the floating population is still considerable, and the trend of population movement is still obvious.
(2) The new urbanization is promoted in an orderly manner.
Urbanization is the only way to modernize, an important way to solve the problem of agricultural and rural farmers, a strong support for promoting regional coordinated development, and an important starting point for expanding domestic demand and promoting industrial upgrading. Since the reform and opening up, China's urbanization has experienced a process of low starting point and fast speed. In 1978, China's urbanization rate was only 17.9%. In 2000, it increased to 36.2%, with an average annual increase of 0.8 percentage points. Since 2000, the urbanization rate has increased by an average of 1.3 percentage points per year, reaching 58.5% in 2017, and the number and size of cities and towns have continued to expand. Urbanization has absorbed a large number of agricultural transfer laborers, promoted the sustained and rapid development of the national economy, brought about profound changes in the social structure, improved the living conditions of hundreds of millions of people, and achieved remarkable achievements.
Since the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", the party and the state have attached great importance to the work of urbanization, grasped the new situation of urbanization development in China, shifted the focus of urbanization work to improving quality, and implemented the urbanization of people as the core to improve the quality of urbanization. A new urbanization strategy oriented. In December 2013, the central government held the first urbanization work conference since the reform and opening up to make arrangements for the promotion of a new type of urbanization with people as the core. In 2014, the Party Central Committee and the State Council issued the “National New Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)” and proposed five major development goals. All localities and departments have conscientiously implemented the major decision-making arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and promoted all work in a solid and orderly manner. Optimize the layout and form of urbanization, take the urban agglomeration as the main form, promote the coordinated development of large, medium and small cities and small towns, improve infrastructure and public service facilities, improve the capacity of urban sustainable development, promote the integration of urban and rural development, and create a fair development for everyone. The opportunity to make the residents feel comfortable.
After several years of hard work, China's new urbanization construction has shown results. The urbanization of the central and western regions has accelerated. From 2010 to 2017, the urbanization rate in the eastern and northeast regions increased by 1 percentage point and 0.6 percentage points respectively, while the central and western regions increased by 1.5 percentage points. The level of urban infrastructure construction has improved, the capacity for sustainable development has increased, and the quality of life of residents has been further improved. Since the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", more than 26 million sets of housing renovations have been completed in shantytowns, and more than 17 million households have been renovated in rural areas.
(3) The process of urbanization of agricultural transfer population has accelerated.
Gradually solving the problem of citizenization of migrants living in urban areas is an objective requirement for building a well-off society in an all-round way and achieving shared development results. It is also an inherent requirement for improving the quality of new urbanization. In order to better promote the integration of urban migrants into cities and towns and share the fruits of economic and social development, since the 18th National Party Congress, the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to the work of urbanization of population transfer and promote the permanent population with the ability to stabilize employment and life in cities and towns. The orderly realization of citizenization is the primary task of promoting new urbanization. It proposes to achieve the goal of 100 million migrant workers and other permanent residents to settle in cities and towns by 2020, and has formulated a series of measures to implement the urbanization of agricultural transfer population.
After the publication of the National New Urbanization Plan (2014-2020), the State Council successively issued a series of reform opinions and policies such as the Opinions on Further Promoting the Reform of the Household Registration System and the Opinions on Further Improving the Work for Migrant Workers. The National Development and Reform Commission and other 15 ministries and commissions formulated the "Promoting "Three 100 Million People" Urbanization Implementation Plan", and various localities have formulated agricultural resettlement population settlement targets. Most cities have relaxed restrictions on settlements and fully implemented the residence permit system. Urban basic public services have been covered by permanent residents, and urban and rural social security systems have been promoted. The introduction of a series of policy measures has improved the ability of new citizens to integrate into the city, accelerated the process of urbanization of agricultural transfer population, more than 80 million agricultural transfer populations have become urban residents, and the coordination of urban and rural development has been further enhanced.
Third, move from a populous country to a strong human resource country, and high-quality talents will enhance their overall national strength.
(1) The quality of national culture has steadily improved.
In the past 40 years, China’s population has experienced a qualitative leap in education. In 1982, the proportion of people aged 15 and over who received high school education and above was 10.9%. In 2017, the proportion increased to 35.0%, and it showed a steady upward trend, especially the proportion of the population with tertiary education and above from 1982. Less than 1% of the year rose to 15.5% in 2017, while the proportion of illiterate people fell from 34.5% in 1982 to 4.9% in 2017, a decrease of 29.6 percentage points. In addition, the average age of education for people aged 6 and over in China has increased from 5.2 years in 1982 to 9.3 years in 2017, an increase of nearly 80%.
(2) The working age population is rich in resources.
Labor resources are the cornerstone of economic growth. Since the reform and opening up, China has created favorable population conditions for economic development by virtue of its huge advantages in the total labor force. China's working age population aged 16-59 has increased from 56.727 million in 1982 to a peak of 921.98 million in 2012. Later, although the labor-age population increased from positive to negative, the total amount entered the reduction phase, but in 2017 it still reached 90,199,000 people, maintaining a scale of more than 900 million, and the absolute amount of labor resources is still huge.
At the same time, the party and the government attach great importance to the cultivation of talents. With the implementation of the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education and strengthening the country through talents, the level of knowledge and skills of the working-age population in China has been continuously improved. The average number of years of education for the working-age population has increased from just over 8 years in 1982. By 10.5 in 2017, especially the new labor force has reached 13.3 years of education, providing a solid human foundation for building a knowledge-based, skilled and innovative labor force, providing a powerful means for mass entrepreneurship and innovation. Talent support.
(3) The health of the population has gradually improved.
People's health is an important symbol of national prosperity and national prosperity. Since the reform and opening up, China's population health has been steadily improving, and health and equity have continued to improve. With the rapid improvement of China's economic development level, medical and health conditions have improved significantly, the social security system has become increasingly sound, and the coverage of advanced medical service systems has continued to expand. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's health industry has increased its investment and prevention of major diseases. The results are remarkable. As an important indicator to measure the health and medical level of a country's residents, China's infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate have dropped significantly, and the average life expectancy has been significantly extended. The infant mortality rate fell from 34.7 in 1982 to 6.8 in 2017. The maternal mortality rate has dropped from 80/100,000 in 1991 to 19.6/100,000 in 2017. The average life expectancy of the population has risen from 67.8 years in 1981 to 76.7 years in 2017, and has increased by nearly 10 years in less than 40 years.
Over the past 40 years, China’s population development situation has undergone profound changes, the pressure on population growth has eased, structural contradictions have become increasingly prominent, and population development has entered an important turning point. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the population development in the new era, and take measures to cope with the contradictions that hinder the balanced development of the population, encourage the population to give birth according to policies, and actively respond to the aging of the population. In the new era, in the face of new opportunities and challenges, each of our Chinese children must be closely united around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, forge ahead, work hard, and continue to realize the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. struggle!
(National Bureau of Statistics, Population Division)
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is a translation. Please forgive us should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.