Forms ofChinese census have been held sinceantiquity and throughout theimperial period. Modern censuses under theRepublic andPeople's Republic of China were initially irregular. From 1990, theNational Population Census of the People's Republic of China has been held decennially at the end of each decade.
Full censuses were held irregularly under imperial China, although local headmen were normally required to maintain accurate running counts of nearby households to meet tax andcorvee obligations in a fair manner.[1] The census then consisted of prefectural, provincial, and national officials systematically gathering, computing, and recording the tallies held by lower levels of the administration.[2]
Much of the census held by theWestern Han in AD 2 was preserved in its dynastic history, theBook of Han,[3] and it is held by modern scholars to have been quite accurate.[4][5][6] On that occasion, taking only taxable families into account to calculate proper revenue and available soldiers,[5] the empire was reckoned to have 57,671,400 individuals in 12,366,470 households. From that time to end of theQing in 1911, 104 national censuses were conducted, roughly one every 15 years outside of prolonged periods of instability from 158–262 during the late Han andThree Kingdoms periods, from 371–463 during the lateJin and earlyNorthern and Southern dynasties, and from 847–958 during the lateTang and earlyFive Dynasties.[7] Of those 104 censuses, 54 included both individual and household totals, producing average household sizes of 5–6 individuals.[8]
ATang census in 742 reported the population of the prefecture around the capitalChang'an as nearly 2 million. The city itself was said to have around a million people within its walls.
TheRepublic of China never held a full national census during its period of control overmainland China.[9] Based on surveys, however, it released a number of official population figures from its Ministry of Home Affairs and itsMinistry of the Interior:
| Official ROC Population Estimates | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year Made | Population (Mainland China only) | ||
| 1912 |  405,800,000 | ||
| 1928 |  441,800,000 | ||
| 1931 | 474,780,000 | ||
| 1936 |  471,100,000 | ||
| 1947 | 461,000,000 | ||
Based on the more complete and apparently accurate 1953 PRC census, the earlier ROC enumerations are now considered to have significantly undercounted the Chinese population since the differences involved would otherwise indicate an extremely improbable growth rate throughoutWorld War II and theChinese Civil War and an impossible growth rate in the late 1940s.[10]
UnderMao Zedong, the People's Republic of China held its first census in1952, but—owing to the disruption created by various policies of theGreat Leap Forward—the second in1963 was secret and unacknowledged until the early 1980s.
The1982 Chinese census was much more thorough and well-conducted than the first two, and similar censuses have been conducted by theNational Bureau of Statistics in 1990, 2000,2010, and 2020.[11] These are the world's biggest censuses and over 6 million enumerators were engaged in the 2000[citation needed] and 2010 censuses.
Between the national censuses, 1% National Population Sample Surveys were taken in 1987, 1995, and 2005; 0.1% National Population Sample Surveys have been taken annually since 2000.[12] National agricultural, economic, and industrial censuses are also taken on a regular basis. The first economic census was taken in 2004 and the second 2008.[13]
| Topline PRC Census Figures | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Year Completed | Population (Mainland China only) | Article |
| 1st | 1953 | 582,603,417 | 1953 Chinese census |
| 2nd | 1964 | 694,581,759 | 1964 Chinese census |
| 3rd | 1982 | 1,008,180,738 | 1982 Chinese census |
| 4th | 1990 | 1,133,683,417 | 1990 Chinese census |
| 5th | 2000 | 1,245,110,826 | 2000 Chinese census |
| 6th | 2010 | 1,339,724,852 | 2010 Chinese census |
| 7th | 2020 | 1,411,778,724 | 2020 Chinese census |