4. Capital: Beijing City
5. Geography: Beijing is the capital of the People's Republic of China, located in the north of Huabei (North China) Plain between East longitude 115'25 - 117'30 and north latitude 39'28 - 41'05, as a part of the north temperate zone.

6. Nature Resources: Beijing has diversified physiognomy with plains, mountains and hills. The utilization of lands is limited by the large areas of rocky mountains and the unfavorable quality of soil and less quantity of water. Up to 67 kinds of mineral resources have been discovered, with worth mine of iron and limestone, and other small minerals. The forest coverage is less than the national average. The wild animals have been reduced distinctly. Additionally Beijing is rich in the tourism resources.
7. Economy: As the national political and cultural center, Beijing is relatively developed in economy, with GDP 181010 million Yuan, GNP 181049 million Yuan, the gross output value of agriculture and industry 213470 million Yuan, and the Per capita GDP 16735 Yuan in the year of 1997. The total value of imports and exports in Beijing in 1997 reached up to 5780 million US dollars. The government revenue was more than 20990 million Yuan, and the output of grain was about 2.375 million tons.
8. People's life: Based on the statistics at the end of 1997, there were 6.558 million people working as the employees, accounting for 51 percent of total population in Beijing. Total wage bill of staff and workers was 51476.32 million Yuan, with the total value of insurance and welfare funds for on-job and no on-job staff and workers 16637.31 million Yuan. The net per capita income of rural households was 3762 Yuan, and the wage bill of staff and workers was 11019 Yuan per person. The annual per capita income at urban and town residents' own disposal was up to 7813 Yuan. Per capita consumption of all residents on average was 4557 Yuan, and for rural residents 2661 Yuan, non-rural residents 5524 Yuan. In terms of health services for every 10000 people were facilitated with 60.6 hospital beds and 109.9 doctors and nurses.
9. Education: At the end of 1997, Beijing had 65 universities with 195842 enrolled students and 36541 teachers, and 1159 middle schools with 891888 students and 64737 teachers, and 2696 primary schools with 977323 pupils and 62424 teachers. Beijing's people have relatively higher educational level than that of other regions. The significant changes in educational composition of population age 6 and above in Beijing are dramatic increase in the proportion of people attended university and decrease in the proportion of illiterate people.

II. Population Situation

1. Size and Distribution

Beijing, as one of the biggest cities in China, its total population in 1997 accounted 12.85 million. With diversity distribution the most people live in plain areas, and less in mountain and hills. The population density in city is the highest, and less density in skirt of city and even less in far suburb areas. It looks like a big family with all 56 ethnic groups living in Beijing.

According to the changes in population quantity by natural growth and social movement such as migration, population floating and administrative border expanded, Beijing population has undergone the five periods as following:

The first period, 1949-1960, was characterized as the highest growth period. It was increased with 3.18 million people in this period mainly due to the border expanded. The total population in Beijing had been rapidly growth by annual growth rate of 5.3 percent in 11 years from 4.14 million in 1949 to 7.32 million in 1960.

The second period, 1961-1970, was defined as the low growth period, since a large amount of workers and cadres who recruited in 1958-1959, named "the Great Leap Forward" period, and returned to rural during the economic difficulty period of 1960-1962. The increment of population in this period including natural increase and net migration was about 391,200 persons in ten years. The yearly growth rate is only 0.52 percent.

The third period, 1971-1978, was shown some of reduction in natural growth, but obviously rebounded in migration were since some returned migrants back to Beijing after economy resumed. The total population in Beijing was increased 784,000 persons in this period, with annual growth rate 1.2 percent.

The forth period, 1979-1990, was influenced in growth rates caused by population momentum and the tide of migrants since opening and reforms. The population growth rates were expressed as cyclic changes, with yearly average increased by 1.6 percent. About 1.83 million people were added to the Beijing population in this period.

The present period, 1991-now, was in the situation with low natural growth rates but large increment in population quantity. Based on large population, even the low growth rate in Beijing as the forehead of the provinces or cities with more than 10 million persons in China, the total number of increment in Beijing can not be ignored.

3. Population Structure by Sex and Age

The forth population census shows that the sex ratio in Beijing was as high as 107.03 in 1990. But in 1997, the sex ratio became normal with 6.427 million males and 6.423 million females among 12.85 million people, accounting for 50 percent in each sex, the sex ratio 100.05. In term of age structure, age 0-14 accounts 2.12 million, about 16.5 percent. The number of people age 15-64 was 9.60 million, about 74.7 percent. The elderly 65 years old and above was 1.13 million, accounting for 8.8 percent of total population. Total dependency ratio was 33.88 percent, with the youth dependency ratio 22.09 percent and elderly dependency ratio 11.79 percent.

4. Fertility Level and Changes

The current fertility level in Beijing is not high with following characteristics. The first is the fertility with regional deviation. The fertility level in rural is higher than that in towns and cities. The second is women in the different occupation have different fertility. The level of brainworkers is lower than that of laborers. The third is women in different education with different level of fertility. The fertility of women in higher education is lower than that in lower education. In 1997, the crude birth rate (CBR) was 7.91 per thousand and the natural increase rate (NIR) was 1.89 per thousand in Beijing. The population projection shows Beijing population will keep increasing in the next twenty years, even at low level of growth rate. Due to the decrease of CBRs , the NIRs would be felled down further, and the process of aging would be speeded up. However, with the driven of market economy, the population of Beijing city will be continuously expanded due to increasing in the migration.

Mortality in Beijing has been reduced since early 1950s. The current death rates in Beijing are relatively lower than that in other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China. In 1997, the crude death rate (CDR) was 6.02 per thousand in Beijing. The death rate of males was higher than that of females, laborers was higher than brainworkers were. The death rates for illiterate and semi-illiterate people were the highest. The infant mortality rates were also in the relatively low level. According the 1990 census, in city districts and suburbs expect Mentogou District, the life expectancy was 73 years for males. Most male life expectancies in these districts were higher than 75 years, and most female life expectancies were over 77 years.

4. Marriage Status, Family Size and Type

The 1990 census shows that percentage of unmarried men was greater than that of unmarried women, but percentage of spouse in men was lower than that in women, same for widows. The percentage of divorce was almost the same in men and in women, but the growth of divorced women was higher than that of divorced men. There was a significant difference in married status among the different ages. The percentage of unmarried was higher in younger ages. The divorced rate is the highest in the age group of 30-49. The married status among the regions expressed diversity. The percentage of widows among the aged 15 and above in rural is higher than that in urban.

In 1997 in Beijing, among 5.343 million males and 5.387 million females aged 15 and over, about 1.172 million males and 0.88 million females were unmarried, 3.846 million males and 3.921 million females first married with spouses, 0.115 million males and 0.111 million females remarried, 0.072 million males and 0.065 million females divorced, 0.139 million widowers and 0.408 million widows.

In terms of family size, the average size in Beijing family tends to be fallen down. The size of households in city is smaller than that in counties. The smallest of family size was in cities, and the largest in suburbs. Looking at family type, the nuclear family with a couple and children was majority, accounting for 58.58 percent in all families in Beijing in 1990. But the composition of family type has been changed with social and economic development. It can be seen that family with one-couple only are getting more, while two generations families tend to be falling. The extend families composed by three generations, relatives or non-relatives become more in the outskirts of the city, but fewer in the outer suburbs. Currently the percentage of single person households is rising.

5. Aging of Population

Beijing population started the process of aging at the end of 1980s. From the beginning of 1990s, population aging became more serious and the problems or issues caused by aging are getting more obvious. By 1997, number of the elderly over 60 years old increased up to 1.74 million, accounting for 14 percent in total population. At present, the population of Beijing became an aging population with several figures as following:

Firstly, the aged population is still relatively young. At present, among the persons aged 60 years and above, the percentage of persons aged 60-69 is about 66.7 percent, the percentage of aged 70-79 is 28.3 percent, and the percentage of persons 80 and above is only 8.0 percent.

Secondly, the participation in economy among the elderly has been declined. The participating rate in 1997 is 11.8 percent, 4.8 percentage points less than that in 1990.

Thirdly, the educational attainment of the elderly is fairly good, illiterate and semi-illiterate in the elderly has been declined dramatically in past years. By the year of 1997, the illiterate and semi-illiterate rate in the elderly dropped to 36.8 percent.

Fourthly, the marriage statue in the elderly is in favorite position. The proportion of widow has been reduced, only about 25.3 percent of the elderly widowed. Proportion of the elderly people who live with their spouses accounted 73.1 percent including 6.1 percent remarried, and only less than one percent of the elderly were unmarried or divorced.

Educational composition of Beijing population has changed a lot since 1949. Population with college or higher educational attainment has increased, and the proportion of illiterate and semi-illiterate has decline dramatically. Usually education level in males is higher than that in females, but now the educational gaps between males and females became narrow. On the average education level in urban is higher than that in rural, the education in younger ages is higher than that in older ages. But the illiterate and semi-illiterate for females are higher than males obviously.

Beijing has a great deal of migrants from all over the country. There are two major reasons. One is return of the "Educated Youth" who went to the countryside and mountains during the “Cultural Revolution” and came back to Beijing in succession. Another reason is a large number of labor forces floated in Beijing from other provinces for seeking job or doing business, since the gaps in social economic development getting larger between Beijing and other regions. Meanwhile, movements for studying or training, for marriage or joining family, for visiting friends or relatives are also playing very important roles in migration.

1990’s census showed that total number of migrants in Beijing was above 1 million, it some time reached the highest peak of 1.5 million. Now the migration is much higher than before. The fluctuation of population with seasons was disappearing with the stable increasing of migrants. The former migration pattern which migrants concentrated on the periods of the Spring Festival and summer has not existed. However it appears yearly cyclical changes. In addition, the emigration of Beijing is more than immigration.

6. Population, Resources and Environment