De totale bevolking van China bedroeg, volgens het Nationaal Bureau voor de Statistiek, op 1 november 2005 1,306 miljard mensen.

Enkele cijfers over China overgenomen van de website van de Wereldbank.

China Quick Facts

Poverty

• More than 400 million people were lifted above the $1 dollar a day poverty level in the last 20 years. Between 1981-2001 poverty fell by 422 million.
• China is still home to 18 percent of the world’s poor.
• About 150 million people in China live on less than $1 a day.
• China’s income inequality has risen from 28 percent in 1981 to 41 percent today (according to the Gini index).
• Poverty reduction efforts, first initiated in 1980, have reduced the number of poor in the rural western province of Gansu by 18.5 million as of 2000 (more than 60 percent of the population).

Growth

• Real GDP grew a stronger than expected: 9.5 percent in the first half of 2005.
• GDP growth is projected to be 9 percent in 2005 and about 8 percent in 2006.
• As Asia’s fastest growing economy over the past 20 years, China saw a 6-fold increase in GDP from 1984 through 2004.
• In 1985 average income in China was $280; in 2005 the average income is $1,290.

China and the Global Economy

• China achieved 12 percent of the world economy on purchasing power parity basis in 2004 (second to the United States).
• China contributed one-third of global economic growth in 2004.
• In 2004, China accounted for half of global growth in metals demand, and one-third global growth in oil demand.
• China’s economy has a high energy intensity. The country uses 20-100 percent more energy than OECD countries for many industrial processes. Automobile standards lag behind European standards by ten years. And China has 20 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, largely due to high coal use and motorization.
• Foreign exchange reserves exceed $700 billion (second to Japan), and are growing at about $200 billion a year.
• About 40 percent of China’s exports go to the United States.

China and the World Bank

• In FY05, China borrowed $1 billion from the World Bank.
• Since becoming a member of the World Bank in 1980, the Bank has supported more than 263 projects in China, with a total of $39 billion in loans and credits – of which 90 projects are ongoing, making China’s portfolio the largest in the Bank.
• China graduated from the International Development Association in 1999.

Een andere bron van gegevens over China is de website van de CIA.