The population's natural growth rate continued to decline. The total population of China was 1,292.27 million at the end of 2003 (see Table 14). There were 15.99 million births in 2003, with a crude birth rate of 12.41 per thousand, and 8.25 million deaths, with a crude death rate of 6.40 per thousand. The net population growth in 2003 was 7.74 million, representing a natural growth rate of 6.01 per thousand.

Table 14: Composition of Population, 2003
                                                                                10,000 persons

	Population (year-end figure)	Percentage
National total	129,227	100,0
Urban	52,376	40.53
Rural	76,851	59.47
Male	66,556	51.50
Female	62,671	48.50
0-14 years	28,559	22.1
15-64 years	90,976	70.4
65 years and over	9,692	7.5

The people's living standards continued to improve. Urban households' annual per capita disposable income was 8,472 yuan (US$1,020.72) in 2003, a real increase of 9.0 per cent with prices increase taken into consideration. Rural households' per capita net income was 2,622 yuan (US$315.90), a real increase of 4.3 per cent. The Engel coefficients (which refers to the proportion of expenditures on food to the total consumption expenditures of households) were 37.1 per cent for urban households and 45.6 per cent for rural households, both down by 0.6 percentage points over the previous year. Private cars numbered 4.89 million at the end of the year, or 1.46 million more than the year-end figure of 2002. The population in poverty in rural areas was 29 million at the end of 2003.

The social security system was further consolidated. By the end of 2003, 154.90 million people participated in basic pension programmes, an increase of 7.53 million. This included 116.38 million staff and workers and 38.52 million retirees. A total of 103.73 million people participated in unemployment insurance programmes, an increase of 1.91 million. Basic health insurance programmes covered 108.95 million people, or 14.94 million more than in 2002. This included 79.77 million staff and workers and 29.18 million retirees. By the end of the year, some 35.51 million retirees from enterprises participated in basic pension programmes, and the majority of them received full pensions on time. Re-employment centers throughout China accommodated 1.95 million laid-off workers from State-owned enterprises, who received their full basic living allowances on time, and their social security payment were paid by the centers. Another 4.15 million people received unemployment insurance payments, 250,000 people less compared with last year. A total of 22.35 million urban residents received minimum income relief from the government, 1.70 million more than last year's figure.

There were 1.222 million beds in social welfare institutions of various types at the end of 2003, accommodating 924,000 people. Some 192,000 service facilities in urban communities were established, including 9,251 community service centers. China sold 20 billion yuan (US$2.41 billion) worth of social welfare lottery tickets in 2003, raising about 7 billion yuan (US$843 million) of social welfare funds. Another 3.01 billion yuan (US$362.6 billion) were received from direct donations.

(China.org.cn March 1, 2004)