Zhejiang

I. Basic Figures

  1. Name: Zhejiang Province

  2. Areas: >0.1 million km2

  3. Population: 442.2 million (in registered permanent residence at the end of 1997)

  4. Capital: Hangzhou City

  5. Geography: Zhejiang province lies in the area of South-east China, between east longitude 118° 01¢ -123° 08¢ and north latitude 27° 01¢ -31° 10¢ , north with the Tai Lake and east with the East Sea. It has a long coastline, 2,200 km, and great many of islands, 2,100. Its climate belongs to the sub-tropical moisture monsoon zone. Shanghai City, Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian Provinces lie on Zhejiang province.

  6. Natural Resource: It has various natural resources, such as fruit land productive capacity, variety of plentiful non-metal resources, great potential of sea resource, various of harbors, quality deep shoreline, attractive traveling resource from beautiful mountains and assembled humanities. On the other hand, Zhejiang is also a province short of arable land per capita, energy and basic industry material resource.

  7. Economy: In 1997, the GDP of Zhejiang Province was 463.824 billion Yuan and its per capita GDP was 10,515 Yuan. The total amount of import and export got to 15.491 billion Yuan. Its total revenue of fiscal and total amount of grain were 34.052 billion Yuan and 14.935 million dun, respectively.

  8. People's life: At the end of 1997, Zhejiang had 26.1966 million persons employed, accounting for 59.2% of total population. The total wage bill of workers and staff was 40.2 billion Yuan. Per capita disposable income of urban resident was 7,358.72 Yuan and per capita net income of rural resident was 3,684.22 Yuan. Per capita living space of urban and rural resident were 11.28 m2 and 37.30 m2,, respectively. Per capita living expenditure of resident was 3,670 Yuan. Those of urban and rural resident were 7,566 Yuan and 2,744 Yuan. Enrollment rate of children in school age was 99.98%. The number of university students per 10 thousand was 23.1. The numbers of sickbed and doctor per 10 thousand were 24.4 and 16.3.

  9. Education: At the end of 1997, Zhejiang had 35 higher education institutes containing 102,302 students and 11,595 teachers, 3,444 junior and senior schools containing 2.44 million students and 136.7 thousand teachers and 19.7 thousand primary schools containing 3.68 million students and 154 thousand teachers. In the past years, proportions of all education levels, except illiterate and semi-illiterate, rose.

II. Population Situation

  1. Size and Distribution

    2.

    In 1997, Zhejiang had a population of 4.435 million. The basic structure of population distribution is as follows: the dense zone of North-Zhe Plain and South-east-Zhe Plain, the secondly dense zone of Jinju Basin and relative sparse zone of East-Zhe, South-Zhe and West-Zhe Hill and Mountain.

  2. Population History

    3.

    Since 1949, the development of Zhejiang population has been quite undulate. According to the population growth rate, the development can be divided into five stages: (1) 1949-1958, the first culmination of population growth when the population growth rate(PGR) per year was 24.3 ‰; (2) 1959-1961, the lowest period of population growth when the PGR was 12.1‰; (3) 1962-1966, the second culmination of population growth when the PGR was 26.6 ‰; (4) 1967-1979, the stable decline period of population growth when the PGR was 17.9 ‰; (5) 1980-, the low increase period of population growth, in the first 10 years, the PGR per year was 10.3‰ and in 1997, the PGR declined to be 4.93‰. In short, Zhejiang population development has being in the eve of population transition.

  3. Population Structure by Sex and age

Population sex ratio of Zhejiang was always high, e.g. 113.35 in 1947. However, since 1949, population sex ratio has declined slowly and tended to be normal. In 1949-64, population sex ratio was more than 109 and the highest one is 111.35. In 1965-78, it was 108-109. In 1979-97, it was 106-108, almost normal. Whereas, in the past years, the sex ratio at birth had a tendency to rise.

Based on the Forth Census Data, since 1949, Zhejiang population age structure had changed as follows: the culmination age became older and the proportion of the young age group decreased.

4. Fertility Level and Changes

In the 1990s, the characteristics of fertility are as follows: low birth rate but high absolute birth; distinctive difference among areas. In 1997, CBR was 11.41‰ and NGR was 4.93‰. According to the population projections by high, middle and low parameters, CBR will continue to decline smoothly in the early period of future 50 years. And in the late period, it will be wavy, fluctuating between 11-13‰.

5. Mortality and Life Expectancy

Before 1949, CDR of Zhejiang population was high, e.g. 28.2‰ in 1936. However, between 1949-1997, CDR had declined gradually, from 14.84‰ in 1949 to 6.48‰ in 1997. Zhejiang population has finished the process from high CDR to low CDR.

Before the setup of P.R. China, the average life expectancy at birth was only about 35. However, it has risen to be 72.03 in 1989, according to the Fourth Population Census.

6. Marital Status, Family and Type

In 1997, 18.8% of the population above 15 year old were unmarried, 73.7% were married, 6.64% were widowed and 0.86% were divorced.

Since 1949, the number of household has increased continuously. From 1953 to 1997, it rose from 5.7976 million to 11.6847 million. Currently, the family size is decreasing and the family structure is also becoming simple. Compared with that in 1982, most of families in 1990 had 2, 3 or 4 persons, accounting for 68.63% in the total family. The proportion of nuclear family rose, that of stem family was smooth and that of joint family declined. In 1997, the family size was 3.19.

7. Aging of Population

The Fourth Census indicates that Zhejiang population has become an aged society since 1990. It is one of five provinces which became an aged society firstly. The characteristics of aging are as follows: rapid aging rate (the growth rate of elderly population is much faster than that of total population); relatively young age structure of elderly population (in 1990, population of 60-69 years old accounted for 60.97% in population above 60 years old. But that of above 80 only accounted for 9.18%); unbalanced aging rate among areas.

8. Population Quality

According to the Fourth Census, the proportion of population with middle or high education increased and that of population with illiterate and semi-illiterate education declined. Compared with that in 1964 and in 1982, the population with higher education increased 2.1 times and 1.67 times, respectively; the crude illiterate rate decreased from 37.89%, 23.93% to 17.61%. However, compared with the national average, Zhejiang population quality is relatively low. The number of population with higher education and high school was below the national average. The general point of population education was only 7.885, ranking 16 in China. The average education year was only about 6 years. The ratio of population with higher education and illiterate was 6.65%, ranking 19 in China. Furthermore, the problem of drop-out children is still serious.

9. Migration and Population Floating

In 35 years of 1956 – 1990, there were 23 years when the out-migration was more that the in-migration and 12 years when the out-migration was less than the in-migration. Since the 1980s, the number of migration has become high, but the migration rate has kept relatively stable; inner-provincial migration has been dominant; compared with the national average, the rate of inter-provincial migration is higher, but the inner-provincial migration is less.

According to the Fourth Census, on July 1, 1990, floating population who had left the household registered county for more than one year was 2.145 million, accounting for 5.2% of the Census registered population. The city with the most floating population was Wenzhou City. It had a floating population of 0.5057 million, accounting for 9.4% of the Census registered population. Inner-county floating population was 1.3 million in 1990. The basic characteristics of floating population are as follows: more male than female; more young people; relatively high education; mostly engaged in industry and service industry; converge in the areas of vicinity, neighborhood city, developed economy, undeveloped service industry, or energy, original material bases.

10. Population, Resources and Environment

With a large and relatively low education population, the population pressure on resource tends to be serious. For meeting the increasing population and its demand, natural resource are developed deeply and environment is becoming frail.

III. Family Planning

Family planning program began in the middle of 1950s and can be divided into four stages.

  1. 1954-1961

    2.

    In 1954, high CBR, 39.40‰, evoked the attention of government. The work of birth control began at that time. IEC on contraception was developed, how to use contraceptive methods was directed, and contraceptive agents and divices were provided by marketing departments. At this period, contraceptives were introduced mainly for male use. The family planning program focused in urban area including factory, government and population density area. There was no related work in rural area. In 1959-1961, for serious economy decline, population growth dropped into the growth valley. The work of birth control was shelved.

  2. 1962-1970

    3.

    After three-year declined economy, the CBR of Zhejiang Province re-rose drastically. In 1963, the family planning program recovered first in urban area and then in rural area. In September of 1963, Zhejiang Family Planning Commission was set up. Sub-area family planning office was included in health department. Employing medical graduates, Province Technological Directing Committee was set up to organize technology training and improve employees in the same year. In this period, “Temporary Regulation on Some Issues of Family Planning” and “On Some Issues of Family Planning” were made and implemented successfully. Contraceptive agencies and devices and research, production and supply of operation devices began to be emphasized. However, in the late period, for the breakup of “Culture Revolutionary”, family planning program was obstructed completely. The second culmination of population growth appeared.

  3. 1971-1978

    4.

    In this period, the leading group of family planning was recovered and strengthened. Population projection was included in the program of national economic and social development. Because of completely implementing the population policy of “deferred, spaced and fewer” and strengthening the work of family planning technology, rapid population growth was controlled.

  4. 1979-

    5.

    In 1980, the focus of family planning program began to transfer from “deferred, spaced and fewer” to “universally advocate each couple to have only one child”. Raised to the fundamental national policy, family planning program was universally publicized. In the next year, Province Family Planning Commission became an independent official department of province government. “ Regulation of Zhejiang Province Family Planning (Draft)”, made in March of 1982, formulated specific population policy and principles of family planning program. In 1984, the one child policy was adjusted slightly and became a little loose. At the same time, the construction of family planning network was emphasized. In the same year, family planning association, a communicative bridge between government and residency, was set up at all levels. In 1988, the system of family planning management by objective and responsibility was made and implemented universally. Family planning became one of important items in office objectives and assessment content. The No. 1 director of each government must be generally responsible for the family program. Meanwhile, various family planning welfare and insurance were developed. In the “ Regulation of Zhejiang Province Family Planning” revised in December of 1989, contemporary population policy was stabilized. Since 1994, Zhejiang Province has positively explored the new ways of family planning in the new condition of socialist marketing economy. The “integrated approach” and the “three emphasis” have been implemented universally. The rural family planning program was integrated with economic development and the assistance to peasants in their endeavors to have happy families with modern ethics and culture and better living conditions. The field of family planning service was broadened and the program quality was improved completely.

    Since the setup of P.R. China, esp. the 1970s, Zhejiang Province family planning program has effectively controlled the population growth, which produced distinctive social and economic effects.

    1. Effectively controlling rapid population growth and accelerating the economic

    development.

    Since 1979, except 1981 and 1982, the province NGR has been below 10‰. The decline of population growth not only saves a great deal of capital for the nation and society, but relatively relieves the population pressure on education, medical service, employment, ecology and environment.

    2. Improving the population quality.

    Before the setup of P.R. China, the e0 of Zhejiang Population was only 35. However, the Fourth Population Census shows that the e0 was 72.03 in 1989, above 2 times of that in 1935. The population with higher education in 1990 was more 2.1 times than that in 1964 and 1.67 times than that in 1982. The crude illiterate rate declined from 37.89% in 1964 to 23.93% in 1982 and to 17.61% in 1990.

    3. Accelerating the transition of population reproduction.

    Before 1949, the pattern of Zhejiang population reproduction was high birth, high death and low growth. Since the universal implementation of family planning, it has gradually transited into the modern population production pattern, namely low birth, low death and low growth.

    4. Reproducing people’s marriage and childbirth.

    Following the economic development, more and more people understand, support and willingly implement the family planning program. It can be reflected by the change of TFR indirectly (5.81 in the 1960s, 3.08 in the 1970s, 1.97 in the 1980s and 1.5 in 1989).

  5. Advancing the international cooperation and communication.

    6.

Since 1979, 11 family planning cadres and medical staff have visited United Kingdom, Unite States, Japan, Thailand, Korean, Singapore and Philippine successfully. They received the training of clinical management, medical statistics of epidemiology, population policy, population program administration, statistics of family planning, IEC and community service. Meanwhile, many foreigners visited and studied Zhejiang province family planning program each year. At the same time, Zhejiang Province implemented 7 international programs in family planning.

Reference

  1. Zhejiang Province Statistical Yearbook, 1998. China Statistical Press.

  2. China Population across the Century, Zhejiang Population. China Statistical Press, 1994.

  3. China Population 1997. Edited by the Department of Population and Social Technology in State Statistics Bureau. China Statistical Press

  4. Encyclopedia of China Family Planning. Edited by Peng Peiyun. China Statistical Press, 1997.

  5. Province Specific Map Collection of China. China Map Press. 1999.

  6. Statistical Yearbook of China Family Planning, 1995,1996,1997,1998. Editing Committee of Statistical Yearbook of China Family Planning.

　

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