China Census

Backgroud

Most countries rely on census data to seek a comprehensive probe into population dynamics. However, the records between census years at the city/county level in China are not comparable as the country has made substantial changes to administrative levels and boundaries over the past decade. Furthermore, these adjustments were not well documented in the released census datasets. Additionally, the delays in releasing census data are frequent. To date, the National Bureau of Statistics of China still has not released the detailed city/county-level data from the 2020 Census. To overcome such data challenges, we manually collected and digitized 2,317 gazettes (~ 10,000 PDF and webpages in total) from local official sources for the 2020 Census and merged them with 2010 Census data. To consider intercensal changes in county boundaries, we matched county-level data with 770 released administrative changes, e.g.,changes in the status of the administrative level, city/county consolidation or disintegration, land reconfigurations. Finally, we built a population panel from 2010 to 2020 at both the county and prefectural-city levels, which covers 2,666 counties in 356 prefectural-cities. The dataset has been made puclicly available in this repo.

Data contributors:

• Lei Dong (lead), Xiaohuan Wu (coordinator), Yunhan Yang, Yizhen Yang, Qianqian Yu, Qiushi Zhou, Lei Yu, Shuang Li, He Zhang, Shang Gao, Liang Zhao, Xinru Chen, and Yuxia Wang.

Roadmap

• Release V1 data (Mar 2022)

  • 2020 county-level/prefectural-level population data (based on gazettes)
  • 2010 county-level/prefectural-level population data (based on 6th census yearbook)
  • 2010/2020 county-level/prefectural-level matched data with geographical boundaries

• V2 data (June 2023) ｜ Postpone

  • 2000/2010/2020 county-level/prefectural-level matched data with geographical boundaries
  • update 2020 county-level/prefectural-level population data (based on 7th census yearbook) [DONE]
  • 2010 township-level population data (based on 6th census yearbook)
  • 2000 county-level/prefectural-level population data (based on 5th census yearbook)

• V3 data

  • 2005/2015 1% national population sample survey

We also have a plan to build a comprehensive database of Chinese cities by combining the economic census, annual prefecture-level city statistical yearbook, and more socio-economic related data (e.g., firms, nighttime light, remote sensing, mobile phone). If you are interested in contributing, feel free to send me an email.

Reference

If this dataset is helpful for your research please cite the following paper:

Mapping Evolving Population Geography in China, Lei Dong, Rui Du, and Yu Liu, Working Paper, 2022.