The city has 9.5664 million permanent residents at the end of 1998 and the number of registered permanent residents was 9.0509 million, 52,900 more than that of the preceding year.

Population growth rate:

The birth rate of the year was 0.989 percent, a drop of 0.09 per thousand on the preceding year. The death rate was 0.649 percent. And the natural growth rate of population was 0.34 per thousand, an increase of 0.37 per thousand on the preceding year.

Ethnicity:

There are 41 minority ethnical groups in the city with a total population of 220,000.

Administrative divisions:

The municipality has 13 districts: Heping, Hedong, Nankai, Hexi, Hebei, Hongqiao, Tanggu, Hangu, Dagang, Dongli, Xiqing, Jinnan and Beichen; its five counties include: Wuqing, Jinghai, Ninghe, Baodi and Jixian.

Literacy:

Tianjin has 20 higher learning institutions, constituting 230 departments and sections, with a total of 70,000 undergraduates and 5,800 graduate students, including 1,500 doctorate candidates. A comprehensive higher learning system has been formed with various disciplines including sciences, engineering, agriculture, medical science, teaching, finance and economics, liberal arts, foreign languages, arts and physical culture, and various grades of students including that of community colleges, undergraduates and graduates. There are 732 middle schools, with more than 500,000 students. Vocational education has made much headway in recent years. There are now 64 secondary specialized schools, 140 vocational schools and 120 technical schools in the city, the total number of students enrolled is 80,000. The adult educational system has been set up, with 532 higher learning institutions for continuous education and more than 50,000 students. The city has 150 research institutions of various sciences and over 300,000 professionals specializing in different areas of science and technology, including many world-famous outstanding scholars and experts.