China has provided household registration permits to nearly 14 million unregistered citizens over the past four years, according to the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) on Thursday.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in late 2012, permits have been issued to the citizens who previously had none, the MPS said in a statement.

Police are also working with other agencies in promoting reform of the system, the statement said.

As of 2016, a unified household registration system among urban and rural areas has been established and policies for the transfer of permits, or "hukou," among different regions have been eased.

In China, various social benefits such as medical insurance and access to education are based on long-term places of work and residence. The document pledged to completely resolve the problem of unregistered citizens in two or three years.

Unregistered people included orphans and "black children" (those born illegally during the period of strict enforcement of one-child policy), the homeless and those who had yet to apply for a permit or who had simply lost theirs. Some parents who violated family planning policy refrained from getting hukou for their children in order to avoid fines or punishment.

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