Beijing's total population has topped 17.4 million, including just over 12 million official residents in the household register and 5.4 million in the floating population, said Zhang Yunli, Assistant Director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Population and Family Planning at a population forum held in Fengtai District, Beijing yesterday.

Between January and October there were 91,000 births recorded in the household register for Beijing this year and 40,475 births in the floating population, according to statistics. The current sex ratio at birth for holders of Beijing "hukou," or official residency permit, is within the normal range of 103-107:100 (male:female), but is approaching the highest limit. The sex ratio in the floating population is greater, reaching approximately 120:100.

Downtown Beijing is more crowded than the suburbs, with the population density of the capital center four times that of the immediate suburbs and sixty times that of the outer suburbs, said Zhang.

The population in Beijing is predicted to maintain this upward trend over the next five to ten years. Beijing experienced a peak period of births in the 1980s, and this generation is now at a prime childbearing age. In addition, there are more couples both coming from one-child families, and these couples are allowed two children under current regulations.

Reform of the household registration system has led to a rise in marriages between Beijing residents and people from other provinces. Zhang also believes that illegal births have contributed to the population swing in Beijing.

(China.org.cn by Yang Xi, December 4, 2007)