10 days to count 1.3 billion Chinese people
The world's largest census is underway as more than six million officials spread out across China's cities and its vast and sparsely populated plains, with the aim to account for every one of the country's growing 1.3 billion population.
The once-a-decade census is likely to reveal that almost half of the population now live in cities, a sign of the huge migration of workers from rural areas to its booming cities and coastal factories. The study is intended to survey 400 million households in just 10 days.
It is China's sixth census and for the first time it will count where people actually live and not where their residency certificate, or hukou, is legally registered, with the hope to track down the millions who have secretly moved to the cities in search of work over the past decade and do not have resident status to remain there.
Many Chinese people said they are uneasy at answering questions about education, family history, their employment situation, and resident status.
They are worried about their personal privacy being compromised as there have been many cases of people having their contact details and bank account numbers stolen and sold on. "People are afraid to give out their personal information," online commentator Yao Wenhui wrote on sina.com.
Others were also worried about problems of having more than one child, property, or income they have not declared. China has a one-child policy, and parents with children born in violation of the rule are required to pay a hefty fine. To encourage people to come forward, those penalties will be reduced for families if they register their extra children in the census.
Watch Reuters video report here.
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