1. Name: Jiangxi Province
2. Areas: 166.9 thousand
3. Population: 41.5033 million (registered population by the end of 1997)
4. Provincial Capital: Nanchang City
5. Geography: Jiangxi province is in the eastern part of China, to the south of middle-lower reaches of Yangzte River. It is between 24⁰29^'~30⁰04^'N and 113⁰34^'~118⁰28^'E, and neighbors on Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei and Anhui.
6. Natural Resources: By the end of 1997, Jiangxi's area of cultivated land was 2.2981 million hectares, the effective irrigated area was 1.9001 million hectares, and it is one of China's main grain production areas. Jiangxi's forest coverage rate was 53.3% by the end of 1997. In addition, Jiangxi has many fresh water fish resources of high value and many types of waterfowl of rare types, even rare animals that are protected worldwide. Nearly 130 types of minerals have been found in Jiangxi, 28 types are among the richest in China, and 11 types are the first.
7. Economy: In 1997, the gross domestic product of Jiangxi was 171.518 billion yuan; the gross industrial and agricultural output value was 235.864 billion yuan. The total imports and exports were 1,856.02 million US dollars; total provincial government revenue was 13,492 million yuan. The yield of grain is 17.677 million tons in 1997, the highest in history. However, the economic structure of Jiangxi is not very good, agriculture is relatively week, and it is difficult for farmers to increase production further; some enterprises had a hard time, there are increasing in lay off workers, reemployment issue is raised.
8. People's Life: By the end of 1997, Jiangxi had labor force of 27.688 million people, made 66.7% of total provincial population. The labor force resource utilization rate was 76.6%. The total wages of staff and workers was 19,440 million yuan, and the total social insurance and welfare funds of employed and retired staff and workers were 5.272201 billion yuan. The average wage of staff and workers was 5,089 yuan, and the per capita net income of rural residence was 2107.08 yuan, the per capita annual disposable income of urban households was 4,071.36 yuan. The average household consumption was 1,930 yuan, 1,569 for rural residence and 3,200 for urban residence. The number of hospital beds per 10,000 persons was 21.75, and the number of doctors per 10,000 persons was 12.50.
9. Education: In 1997, higher education in Jiangxi developed rapidly. The province recruited 414 postgraduate students with the number of graduate student 1076 in school; higher education institutions with the number of student enrolment 87,993. Specialized secondary schools with the number of student enrolment 138,001; vocational high schools with a number of student enrolment 115,227; Junior high schools with number of student enrolment 1,959,700 and primary schools with a number of student enrolment 4,544,700. The primary school-age enrolment rate is 99.56%.

The total population of Jiangxi Province in 1997 was 41.5033 million. Compared with other provinces, the distribution of population is much even mainly because there is little difference in climate, landform and natural resources in different parts of the province. Rural population constitutes the majority of the whole population and they are scattered in the whole province. Most areas of Jiangxi is good for farming. But there are still regional differences in the distribution of population: the density is higher along rivers and lakes; higher in plain and cities while the proportion of agricultural and mountainous population are higher.

The population increase process of Jiangxi can be divided into 5 periods: 1950~1952 was a period of fast population growth with an annual increase rate of 8.01%. 1953~1959 was the first peak of population increase with an annual rate of 2.56%. 1960~1962 was the trough of population growth. Affected by the disasters, the increase rate decreased to only 1.01% annually. 1963~1978 was the second peak of population growth with an annual rate of 2.82%; about 714.3 thousand annual increment. From 1979 up now is the period of birth control with plan. Effective Family Planning Program was carried out through the whole province, which successfully relieved the burden of third peak of population growth. From 1982 to 1997, the population increased by 528.9 thousand people each year with an annual rate of 1.43%.

The sex ratio of Jiangxi had long been higher than that of average national level, always around 106~107 on the whole, and stabilized in recent years. There are more males than females. In 1997, population of age 0-14 made 27.19% of the total; 15-64 population made 66.92%; and population of age 65 and above made 5.89% of the total. The median age was 27.42 and the total dependency ratio was 49.03%, with the ratio of children 40.28% and of aged 8.75%, and Jiangxi is an adult population.

There has been a transition in the ideology of population growth, from "there are much land but less population and population growth should be encouraged" to "population growth should be controlled". The TFR of Jiangxi was among the highest of China. But since 1990s, thanks to the effective measures of family planning the birth rate, TFR and multi-child rate have kept declining. In 1997, the birth rate was 17.43‰;the natural increase rate was 10.87‰. According to population projections in 3 scenarios of high, medium and low, the population of Jiangxi will still increase in the next 40 years, and the maximum population may reach more than 50 million. The population increased most quickly during the 90s. The overall trend of population growth will be from high to low, but it may bounce back in some year.

The mortality had been declining since the 50s except for one or two years. In 1954, the mortality of Jiangxi was 14.15‰, and it was 6.65‰ in 1997. The male mortality rate is higher than that of females; the mortality in rural areas is higher than that of urban areas; the lower age-group population has a lower mortality. The pattern of mortality changed from "U" to "J" shaped.

According to the historical record, in the early 50s, the life expectancy was only 30~35. In 1990, it was 67.85.

According to 1990 4th National Census, the age of never-married population concentrated on age 24 and younger. Early marriage was widely practiced. Most females marry at the age of 20-24, males at 24-29, and the percentage of never married is low. The proportion of never-married population was higher in city than in township and rural areas. The proportion of currently married was higher for females than for males, and higher in city than in county and town. There were more widowed females than males, and the widowhood rate of county was the highest. As for divorced, both the quantity and rate were higher for males than for females, and the rate increased by age. There was no obvious difference between urban areas and rural areas in divorce rate, but regional difference was observed. In 1997, among the total age 15 and above population of 30.764 million, there were 15.565 million male and 15.199 million female; population of first marriage were 10.567 million males and 10.924 million females; population of second marriage were 247 thousand for males and 287 thousand for females; divorced males were 165 thousand and females were 53 thousand; and widowed males 531 thousand and females 1362 thousand.

As for the family size and structure, the proportion of households of three-generation and above is higher in rural than that in township and county. The two-generation households constitute the majority of all households and the four-person household is the most popular size.

Though the population of Jiangxi is adult-type, the proportion of aged population is increasing at an fast speed. In 1990, the proportion of population aged 60 and above was 7.73%, which increased by 0.47% compared with that of 1982. Though the proportion was not very high, the aging of the population is faster in 90s than that of 80s due to the decline of birth rate and the prolongation of life expectancy. It is projected that Jiangxi province will become an aged population in around 2015. Over the eight years from 1982 to 1990, the proportion of the aged population currently-married and never-married increased, while the proportion of the divorced and widowed population decreased. 24.27% of the elderly persons had a job.

Since 1982, education level of Jiangxi population improved much, the proportion of people with education increased, and that of illiterate and half-illiterate population decreased. In 1997, the educated population accounted for 81.13% of the total population, but mainly focused on primary education level. There is still a big gap between Jiangxi and the national average level.

With the reform and openness policy, both internal migration and inner migration have been increased in Jiangxi. The size of inter-provincial migration is larger than intra-provincial migration; the direction of migration is from rural to urban areas; male migrants are more than females; there are various reasons for migration but mainly focus on finding a job or doing business, job transfer, and marriage.

Jiangxi has rich resources, which include rivers and lakes, plantings and minerals. However, Jiangxi also suffers many disasters such as flood, drought, freezing and so on. The exploitation and utilization of resources just can meet the demand of economic development. There are still many problems, such as under-exploitation of minerals and hydro- power; destroy of natural resources and environment due to the inappropriate use and exploitation; the backward technology of exploitation; over-seize cultivated land in the process of industrialization.

The Family Planning Program experienced three phases after 1949:

In 1957, Health Department of Jiangxi and The Women's Federation of Jiangxi reported to Provincial Government about the need of people for fertility regulation, and asked to conduct the technical consulting and publicity of fertility regulation. In 1958, the report was proved and the practice was initiated in 8 cities including Nanchang. In 1971, the Provincial Government issued "Notice about Strengthening the Family planning" promoting later marriage and family planning. The provincial Family Planning Commission was established in 1972. In 1973, to deal with the problem of high parity births, the government promoted one couple to have two children, and also instructed the Department of Public Health to strengthen the publicity of fertility regulation and to screen/treat diseases of children and women. In 1974, the Provincial Family planning Commission requested that Family Planning Program should be spread into grassroots and the idea of "more children, more welfare" and son preference should be changed. Government staffs and officials are encouraged to practice contraception. Meanwhile, technical service of fertility regulation was widely available. In 1978, the natural increase rate declined by 10% compared with that of 1966.

In 1980, the Central Committee of the CPC issued “An letter to all Party members and Youth League members on the control of population growth." Jiangxi provincial government called on all Party members, Youth League members and leading cadres to response to the promotion of "one child for one couple." As a result, the contraceptive prevalence rate increased and the high parity birth rate declined.

In 1983, the provincial government issued "Regulation of Family Planning Implementation" which promoted later marriage, and later, fewer and healthier births.

In 1985, the provincial government issued "Notice about practicing contract on the task of population control" which stipulated the contract system for population control from 1985 to 2000.

In 1986, Family Planning Association of Jiangxi was established, and before long such associations at all levels were established. They did much work in consulting, supervising, service providing and publicity. Except publicity and education, they also participated in poverty alleviation, help poor families on economic development. They also cooperated with insurance companies to alleviate the worry of people by introduce insurance such as old age security for only child parents.

In 1987, the provincial government issued "Specific Regulations of Family Planning Policy" with the purpose of strengthening the family planning work and management. With all the efforts, the rate of high parity birth in 1988 decreased 2.18% than that of last year.

In 1988, the Provincial Family Planning commission organized experience exchange activities and meanwhile promoting basic-knowledge education movement as an important content of family planning. In 1990, 95% villages were included in the movement and in the same year the Provincial Family Planning Institute was established to strengthen research and technical support providing.

To lead the family planning program to a way of legal management, in 1990, "Jiangxi Province Family Planning Regulation" was enacted which would ensure that the family planning work be carried out scientifically, normally and sustainable.

Since 1990s, the population size of Jiangxi has been increasing gradually, which put great pressure on the development of social economy. To deal with the serious situation, Jiangxi did its best and made great achievements: the birth rate is stable with slight decline; the education level of population improved; both the general birth rate and high parity birth rate dropped.

1. "Yearbook of Jiangxi statistics (1998)", edited by China Statistics Press
2. " China's Population Across The Century (Jiangxi)", China Statistics Press, 1994
3. "China's Population of 97", edited by Population, Society, and Science Department of State Statistical Bureau, China Statistical Publishing House, 1998
4. "China's Family Planning", edited by Peng Peiyun, China Population Press, 1997
5. "Collection of maps by province of China", China Map Press, 1997
6. "China's Family Planning Yearbook", edited by Editorial Committee of China's Family Planning Yearbook, 1998

Return