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The 1953 Chinese Census in Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Leo A. Orleans
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Extract

The 1953 Chinese census reported a total population on the Chinese mainland of 582.6 million. This figure came as a surprise to Western observers, since the population figures most frequently quoted for China during the preceding twenty years had been on the order of magnitude of “about 450 million,” the 1933 estimate of the League of Nations. Although the inadequacies of Chinese population statistics and their controversial nature are well known, some understanding of the latest figure is possible by viewing it in historical perspective. Such an analysis is here presented, and is confined to the 1953 census data referring to the size of the population and its distribution among the provinces.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , August 1957 , pp. 565 - 573
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1957

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References

1 League of Nations, Statistical Yearbook 1934–36 (1935), p. 21. The writer is greatly indebted to the late Dr. Eugene M. Kulischer and to Mr. Michael K. Roof for their advice and encouragement during the preparation of this paper.

2 Liu, Nanming I., Contribution a I'éitude de la population chinoise (Geneva, 1935), p. 97.Google Scholar

3 Willcox, W. F., “The Population of China and Its Modern Increase,” Revue de I'Institute International de Statistique (April 1937), p. 7.Google Scholar

4 Liu, pp. 122–132.

5 For a more complete discussion of the attitudes of the Chinese people, see Jaffe, A. J., “A Review of the Censuses and Demographic Statistics of China,” Population Studies (Dec. 1947), p. 323.Google Scholar

6 Buck, J. L., Land Utilization in China (Shanghai, 1937), p. 370Google Scholar, and Chen, Ta, Population in Modern China (Chicago, 1946), p. 86.Google Scholar

7 For discussion of this series of population figures, see Taeuber, Irene B. and Orleans, Leo A., “A Note on the Population Statistics of Communist China,” Population Index, XXII (Oct. 1956), 274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Krotevich, S., “Vsekitaiskaya perepis' naseleniya 1953 g.” ‘“All-China Census for 1953”’, Vestnik Statistiki (Sept.-Oct. 1955), pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

9 Krotevich, p. 49.

10 Krotevich, p. 49.

11 Coale, Ansley J., “The Population of the United States by Age, Sex, and Color—A Revision of Census Figures,” Journal of American Statistical Association, L (March 1955), 44.Google Scholar

12 Jaffe, p. 308.

13 Unpublished papers from the 1940 Manchukuo census, U. S. Bureau of the Census.

14 The Industrialization of Japan and Manchukuo, 1930–40.