CHINA: POPULATION
DISTRIBUTION AND
DENSITY
INTRODUCTION
• China has been the world’s most populous country for centuries and
today makes up one-fifth of the world’s population.
• The country’s population of 1.3 billion in the early 2000s is projected
to grow by another 100 million by 2050.
• India—with its higher fertility levels - is forecast to move ahead of
China in total population size by 2035.
• China covers about the same geographic area as the United States,
although its population is nearly five times greater.
• In addition, because of rugged mountains in the west and vast desert
areas in central China, the population is concentrated within a
surprisingly small area along the East and South.
CHINA: POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
• Population distribution refers to the distribution of a population in a
certain geographical space at a given time, or to the spatial form of a
population.
• Population size and population density are the main indicators of
population distribution and are used to measure regional differences
in population distribution.
• The spatial distribution pattern is closely related to climate, resources
and environment and has typical scale characteristics.
• With the accelerating urbanization process, the population
increasingly concentrates in urban areas.
Population of China
•Mainland only: 1,397,897,720 (2021)(1.39 billions)
•Hong Kong: 7,191,503 (2015)(7 millions)
•Macau: 601,969 (2015)
Urban-rural ratio
•Urban: 61.4% (2020)
•Rural: 38.6% (2020)
CHINA: POPULATION DISTRIBUTION
CHINA: POPULATION DISTRIBUTION & DENSITY
• China’s national population density (137/km2)
• The overall population density of China conceals major regional variations.
• Broadly speaking, the population was concentrated east of the mountains
and south of the northern steppe.
• The most densely populated areas included the Yangtze River Valley (of
which the delta region was the most populous), Sichuan Basin, North China
Plain, Pearl River Delta, and the industrial area around the city
of Shenyang in the northeast.
• Population is most sparse in the mountainous, desert, and grassland regions
of the northwest and southwest. In Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region,
portions are completely uninhabited, and only a few sections have
populations denser than ten people per km2. The Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang,
and Tibet autonomous regions and Qinghai and Gansu comprise 55% of the
country's land area but in 1985 contained only 5.7% of its population.
CHINA: POPULATION DISTRIBUTION & DENSITY
• In 1935, China’s population geographer Hu Huanyong proposed the
differential line from southeast and northwest that reveals the
population density distribution in China, namely, the
Heihe-Tengchong Line, which is now called the “Hu Huanyong Line” .
• In his research, 36% of the area southeast of the “Hu Huanyong Line”
was inhabited by 96% of the population.
• There was a certain degree of overlap between this demonstration
line and the rainfall line in the meteorological area, the dividing line
of the geomorphological area, the dividing line of cultural
transformation, and the ethnic line.
• Therefore, the “Hu Huanyong Line” was not only the population line
of China but also the boundary of China’s ecological environment.
In 2002, about 94% of the
population lived east of
the Heihe–Tengchong
Line, which makes up only
43% of the total land area,
which leads to much
higher average density
(about 280/km2, little less
than Japan).
CHINA: POPULATION DISTRIBUTION &
DENSITY
• Five classes are determined by ranking the population density from high
to low:
• (1) Extremely dense population areas (population density greater than
500 people per km2 );
• (2) Dense population areas (population density greater than 200 people
per km2 and less than 500 people per km2 );
• (3) Medium population areas (population density greater than 50 people
per km2 and less than 200 people per km2 );
• (4) Sparse population areas (population density greater than 1 person
per km2 and less than 50 people per km2;)
• (5) Extremely sparse population areas (population density less than 1
person p
POPULATION DENSITY OF CHINA
CHINA: POPULATION DISTRIBUTION & DENSITY
• The areas with high population density are mainly concentrated in
the middle and lower reach of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River
Delta, the Sichuan Basin, and the southeast coastal areas.
• The extremely dense population areas carry 51% of the population
with 9% of the national land area and are distributed in urban areas
such as the North China Plain, Shandong Peninsula, Shanghai,
Chengdu, Chongqing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen; 13% of the
country’s land area, considered a dense population area and
containing 30% of the population, is mainly distributed in the plains
surrounding the Northeast Plain, the middle and lower reaches of the
Yellow River, the Yangtze River Delta, Central China, South China, and
cities;
CHINA: POPULATION DISTRIBUTION &
DENSITY
• The medium population areas covering 20% of the country’s land
area and hosting 16% of the population are distributed in the areas of
the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, Longxi Mountains, the mountains of the
northeastern plains, and the surrounding areas of central China; 41%
of the country’s land area, considered the sparse population area,
carries only 3% of the population and concerns mainly Inner
Mongolia, Xinjiang, most of the mountainous areas in western
Sichuan, and the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau; the
extremely sparse population area accounts for 17% of the country’s
land area, but the area is almost unoccupied, mainly in southern
Xinjiang, western Inner Mongolia and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
THANKS
• The total population is 1.38 billion, and the population density is 143.82
people per km2. The areas with high population density are mainly
concentrated in the middle and lower reach of the Yellow River, the
Yangtze River Delta, the Sichuan Basin, and the southeast coastal areas.
The extremely dense population areas carry 51% of the population with 9%
of the national land area and are distributed in urban areas such as the
North China Plain, Shandong Peninsula, Shanghai, Chengdu, Chongqing,
Wuhan, Guangzhou and Shenzhen; 13% of the country’s land area,
considered a dense population area and containing 30% of the population,
is mainly distributed in the plains surrounding the Northeast Plain, the
middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Yangtze River Delta,
Central China, South China, and cities;
