Current Facts & Stats About “Age” in China
Here are a few current facts, stats and news items about China taken from a survey of the ageing population in China.
“Old people’s homes are a rarity in China, catering for only about 1% of the over-65s, far less than in most Western countries. The vast majority of older Chinese live with their families. Care for the old within the family is not only a cultural expectation, based on the Confucian tradition of respect for age and experience; under a law passed in 1996 it is also a legal obligation. Elderly people have been known to sue their families for maintenance if they fail to comply.”
“For the past three decades China has been operating a strict population-control policy, so there are now far fewer young people around to take care of the elderly. This state of affairs is usually referred to by the nifty formula “4-2-1”, meaning that the typical only child today will have two parents and four grandparents to look after—a bit of an exaggeration, but not that far off.”
“China is still a relatively young country, with a median age of around 30. But, uniquely among developing countries, it is ageing extraordinarily fast, so by 2050 its median age will have risen to about 45. Over the next few decades the ratio of elderly dependants to people of working age will rise steeply, from 10% now to 40% by 2050. From about 2030 the country will have more elderly dependants than children…”
“Average life expectancy at birth, at 74, is now 25 years higher than it was 50 years ago, yet the retirement age has remained at the same low level. Unless it goes up, any comprehensive pension system that China might eventually introduce will be hideously expensive.”
“There is no explicit population target, but the latest forecasts suggest that numbers will keep growing from about 1.3 billion now to a peak of around 1.46 billion by 2030 and then start declining gently.”
Read the full article: A Special Report on Ageing Populations: China’s Predicament
China’s Population of Web Users
China’s population of Web users hits 298 million (January 13, 2009, AP)
China’s fast-growing population of Internet users has risen to 298 million after passing the United States last year to become the world’s largest, a government-sanctioned research group said Tuesday. The latest figure is a 41.9 percent increase over the same period last year, the China Internet Network Information Center said in a report. China’s Internet penetration is still low at just 22.6 percent, leaving more room for rapid growth, according to CNNIC. The Pew Internet and American Life Project places U.S. online penetration at 71 percent. The United States had an estimated 223.1 million Internet users in June, according to Nielsen Online, a research firm.
China has more than 50 mln web bloggers (January 7, 2009, Xinhua)
There were more than 50 million bloggers in China by the end of November 2008, a growth of some 6.38 percent from the end of November 2007, said Gao Lulin, deputy head of the Internet Society of China on Tuesday. The number of bloggers, or blog authors, which are personal online journals intended for public consumption, was 47 million at the end of November 2007. Currently, there are more than 290 million netizens in China, ranking the country first in the world in terms of its online population.
11.22.08
China, an enormous task!
China is such an enormous task. I use these stats when I present China at a Church and believe is shows how great the work is to be done there and the number of missionaries needed just for this one country alone
China has more than 600 cities.
165 of those cities each have over 1 million souls.
If you sent 165 missionaries, to each of these cities over 1 million souls, and each missionaries reached 1 million souls by themselves, there would still be over a billion people left unreached.
Birth & Death Rate
In China…
1 Person Dies Every 3.5 Seconds
1 Person Born Every 1.8 Seconds
Fun Trivia About China
Paper , Compass , Explosive Powder and Printing qualify as the “ Four Great Inventions of China ”. They are also credited with having invented the wheel and the first calender. Ice Cream was invented in China in 2000 BC, by packing a milk and rice mixture in the snow. Marco Polo took the recipe of Ice Cream and Noodles back with him to Europe. Century Eggs, also known as One Hundred Year or One Thousand Year old Eggs are a delicacy in China . Usually these eggs are processed with special ingredients and buried underground for some days or weeks. China has 3240 Television Broadcast Stations and 259 FM channels. In Hong Kong , cars are driven to the left side of the road, following the British way, but the rest of China drives on the right side. People have been drinking tea in China for over 1800 years. Chinese White Tea is basically boiled water. Chi Le Mei You – “Have you eaten?” is the most traditional Chinese greeting . The Martial Art Kung Fu was invented by the Shaolin Monks who used it to protect themselves from robbers in lonely mountain roads.
09.11.08
Ancient Facts About China
- Chinese Civilization is one of the few ancient civilizations to have its individual writing script. The Chinese language has over 20,000 characters. The average Chinese only learns about 5,000 of these in his lifetime.
- The Chinese calendar is based on the Lunar Cycle . It is the oldest known calendar , originating in 2600 BC. It has twelveZodiac signs. A complete cycle would take 60 years to complete.
- Dashanpu in the Sichuan province of China has yielded over 1000 Dinosaur Fossils . Four Winged Feathered Dinosaurs called Theropods have been found; these are considered to be the missing link between dinosaurs and birds.
- Child Emperor Pu-Yi was the last imperial ruler of China in the period 1908 -1912. Empress Wu of the Tang dynasty was the onlyfemale Emperor of China .
- The Great Wall of China is also known as the “Ten Thousand Li Wall”, one Li is equal to 500 meters. The wall is over 1500 miles in length.
- Khubililai or Kublai Khan issued Silk Notes as currency . There was also a Jade currency .
- Acupuncture treats illnesses with inserting sharp thin needles in various pressure spots, it originated over 5000 years ago from China.
09.4.08
Interesting Facts About China
Total Land Area of China is 9,596,960 Sq. Kms. It is the fourth largest Country in the World. Shanghai and Beijing are two of the largest and most populous cities in the world. At least 14 countries and 4 seas border China . Since the country is so large, climate is extremely varied – it is sub arctic in the North and Tropical in the South. The population of China according to a July 2006 estimate is 1,313,973,713. It is officially the most populated country in the world. The Chinese Government has adopted a “one child” policy in an effort to curb the high numbers. Unfortunately this also makes China one of the fastest aging countries . China has an obligatory Military service of 2 years for all men between 18 and 22. Women of the same age group are also recruited for specific military jobs. The Han Chinese is the largest majority group in China. Mandarin Chinese is the o fficial language . However in total, 55 official minorities and 206 listed languages are mentioned. The Jen Min Jih Pao or People’s Daily is the largest official publication. The Tienanmen Square is the world’s largest public gathering place and the Three Gorges Dam is the biggest dam.
08.28.08
165 Cities Over 1 Million People
Unbelievable the number of cities and people in China. These stats that I am about to share with you are going eat your lunch and rock your world, if you realize these numbers are souls…souls that most likely don’t have a gospel witness. Read the article below only if you can handle it.
China had more than 660 cities by the end of 2002, of which 10 had populations of more than 4 million each in the urban area; 23, between 2 and 4 million; 138, between 1 and 2 million; 279, between 500,000 and 1 million; 171, between 200,000 and 500,000; and 39, less than 200,000.
08.28.08
Top Ten Cities in China
The Top Ten Cities in China By Population
- 上海 Shanghai 14,404,000 (2007)
- 北京 Beijing 12,133,000 (2007)
- 广州 Guangzhou 10,045,800 (2007)
- 深圳 Shenzhen 8,464,300 (2006)
- 香港 Hong Kong 6,840,000 (2007)
- 东莞 Dongguan 6,450,000 (2007)
- 天津 Tianjin 5,190,000
- 武汉 Wuhan 4,890,000
- 哈尔滨 Harbin 4,754,753
- 沈阳 Shenyang 4,420,000
How many Christians are in China?
This is a question asked by a lot of people and a lot of groups are giving different answers. I came across this article and it gives a good explanation about the different numbers out there. As always we hope for the higher number and pray that it is even higher and more and more souls are being saved, but the reality is, it probably isn’t as high as it sounds. We need more laborers for the largest nation on Earth!
Just how many Christians and communists are there in China?
Some Church scholars in Hong Kong doubt recent claims that Chinese Christians outnumber members of the Communist Party, but assert that China is deeply concerned about ever-increasing religious influences.
The American Bible Society at the end of August launched a special fundraising project to help provide paper to produce Bibles for distribution throughout China during 2005 through Amity Press, the officially recognised Christian printing press of the registered church. The Society said that “only the lack of Bible paper holds us back”.
And in his book “Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity Is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power”, David Aikman, a former senior foreign correspondent for Time magazine writes that out of China’s 1.3 billion citizens, 70 million are Protestant and 12 million are Catholics, and he believed that Christianity will continue to grow in China.
In Hong Kong, Professor Ying Fuk Tsang, a divinity professor, said the number of Protestants in mainland China could definitely be more than 14 million – the number provided by official sources without counting believers in unregistered groups known as house churches. Yet he has reservations about reports which said Christians in China outnumber members of the Communist Party, which tally about 70 million.
“As official data are hard to obtain, it is difficult to make an accurate estimation of the number of home churches attendants in the mainland China,” said Ying who teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and whose research interest is Christianity in China.
Some sources have said the number of mainland Protestants is estimated to be 70 to 80 million, or even 100 million. However, Ying contends that 30 to 40 million would be a more realistic estimation.
“Another point of contention is the definition of membership in the Protestant church. Should those baptised be considered church members, or should those attending church regularly be regarded as members?” Ying said in an interview with Ecumenical News International.
Asked if the growing number of Christians could become a group exerting pressure on the Beijing government, Ying said there are mechanisms regulating church activities in China, and the government would also try to have the informal house churches registered.
Still, Ying said, “The upsurge of Christianity is really a potential destabilising factor in the eyes of the Chinese Communist Party,” which is concerned that the concept of democracy might be spread by the Protestant church, impacting on the social situation of the state.
Some sources said a number of former democracy activists had converted to Christianity, Ying noted. The dramatic increase in Christians in mainland China is attributable to the resurgence of religious activities since the 1980s and a spiritual hunger that has accompanied the economic takeoff, he asserted, adding that changes had also been observed in the composition of believers.
“Such growth was seen mainly in rural villages in the past”, but has already spread to big cities like Beijing. Among converts are university students and entrepreneurs, “showing that the urban population has an increasing interest in seeking the meaning of life”, said Ying.
Another phenomenon cited by Ying is that more and more members of the Communist Party are taking part in religious activities. “Theoretically speaking, those joining the Communist Party have no religious belief, or it may be said that they believe in Communism. But nowadays it cannot be ruled out that some of them may have joined the Party merely due to pragmatic considerations.”
Party members’ participation in Christian activities may range from low profile attendance without being baptized, to participating only after retirement, or even withdrawing from the party after their participation, says Ying.
Anthony Lam Sui-ki, a Catholic researcher on the church in China, has also questioned the claim that Chinese Christians outnumber members of the Communist Party. He said the number of Catholic Church members in mainland China is 5.3 million according to official statistics, while researchers generally believe it to be 12 million. Even with 30 million Protestants, the total number of Christian believers would be far below the 70 million members in the Communist Party.
:: The five state-approved religions in China are Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, Protestantism and Catholicism. The approximately 12 000 Christian Orthodox, mainly inhabitants of Inner Mongolia and north-western Xinjiang are a tiny fraction of Christian believers in mainland China.
Source: http://www.eni.ch/articles/display.shtml?05-0691