Total population:

By the end of 2002, Hunan had a total population of 66 million. Among them, 21 million are urban residents, and 45 million are rural residents.

Population growth rate:

The birth rate of the province in 2002 was 11.56‰, and death rate was 6.7‰. The natural population growth rate was 4.86‰.

Life expectancy: 69 years.

Ethnicity:

Hunan Province has a total of 41 ethnic groups including Han, Tujia, Miao, Yao, Dong, Bai, Hui and Uygur. According to the fifth census in 2000, the Han population was 57.8 million, 89.79 percent of the provincial total, while minorities are 6.58 million or 10.21 percent. Compared with the fourth census in 1990, the number of ethnic minority people has increased 2.26 percentage points. The majority of local minorities live in the mountainous regions of west, south and east Hunan.

Educational level

The fifth census reveals that 1.885 million residents are in higher education (junior college and above), accounting for 10.21 percent; those receiving high school education (including secondary professional education) are 7.164 million, 11.84 percent; youngsters receiving junior high school education total 22.96 million, 37.95 percent of the total; while there are 24.68 million at elementary school level or 40.8 percent. Of the total population, 2.995 million are illiterate, accounting for 5.98 percent of the province’s population above the age of 15.

By the end of 2002, Hunan had 60 colleges and universities, and 419,400 enrolled students. There are 16 graduate-level institutes, with 14,147 students enrolled and 24 adult colleges with an enrolment of 301,800. There are 113 secondary technical schools, with 223,700 students. Besides, Hunan has 4,712 middle schools, taking in 4.669 million students. Hunan’s middle school education rate is 93 percent. Currently, the province has 27,243 primary schools, with 5.29 million pupils. Its primary education rate is 97.64 percent.