The investigation of the number of births and migrating population will affect the quality of the whole census, which is more complicated and arduous compared with previous censuses, said an official from the office of the fifth national census under the State Council.

The fifth national census this November is expected to record changes that have taken place in China's population size, structure distribution, quality, environment, and other demographic information over the past 10 years.

The previous four censuses were conducted in 1953, 1964, 1982 and 1990 since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949.

The official said that to ensure the accuracy of the census, the data received from the investigation are not allowed to be used to judge the achievements of local governments and various units.

The concerned policies and regulations must be carried out precisely, so as to acquire accurate information on the population, he said.

No illegal charges are allowed during the population surveying and the information collected during this census must not be used to punish anyone for their past mistakes on population-related matters.

China had a population of 1.236 billion at the end of 1997, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, and its population is growing by 13 to 15 million a year. The country aims to maintain its population below 1.3 billion.

Since the fourth national census in 1990, great changes have taken place in China's population.

The total population keeps on increasing; the size of family shrinking; the aging of population accelerating; more labor force shifting from agricultural to non-agricultural sectors; migrating population growing; unemployment rate climbing; education level, employment structure and makeup of ethnic groups changing.

The official said the coming census would provide key information on China's population and is important for drafting China's population policy in the first five years of the 21st century and its long-term social and economic development plan.

He added that the census in China has a great significance in studying global population problems and promoting global sustainable development.

According to him, the contents of the fifth national census are greatly enlarged compared with the previous ones. Housing items will appear in the questionnaires for the first time. China will use the high-speed Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system to conduct the census.

(Xinhua 10/27/2000)