PEOPLE OF CHINA

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 13, 15 July 1937, Page 17

PEOPLE OF CHINA

QUARTER OF THE WORLD

Although no comprehensive census of China has ever been taken, statistics have been issued by the Ministry of. the Interior putting the population of all China, including" Manchuria, at 466,785,856,. or 435,767,266 exclusive of Manchuria, says the "Christian Science Monitor." A single province, far western ISzechuen, is credited with having nearly 53,000,000 inhabitants. Four provinces—Kiangsu, Shantung, Honan, and Kwangtung—are ' supposed to contain .more than 30,000,000 each. Shanghai is Ihe largest city, with a counted population of 3,485,998 inhabitants, and Nanking runs filth with 1,019,148. Peking is second, Tientsin third, and Canton (though not included in these figures for some reason unexplained) is fourth. Szechuen's density is only 308 inhabitants to the square mile because of its tremendously large area. Kiangsu has a density of 837, Chekiang of 528, Hopci of 573, and Shantung of 483. The average density for all China is not regarded as high, being ■ 149 per square mile without Manchuria which drops to 105 if Manchuria is included. It is interesting to compare with China's total population the world total, given by Whitaker as 1,997,000,000. Ten years ago the Post Office estimate, based upon systematic inquiry throughout the country, set the total at 485,000,000. Offhand this would appear to indicate a 20,000,000 drop in the population, but the probabilities are that there has been an increase if anything, and that the discrepancy is merely due to the different methods of estimate. In ariy event, all authori.ties now seem to agree in putting the total at over 450,000,000 as compared with the usual round figure of 400,000,000 which is so often quoted. China thus has one-quarter of the ■ population of the world, with less than one-twentieth the total land surface, which gives some notion of why Chinese living standards are low to a degree incredible to the Western mind.