China Population

China in a global context

With about 1,425,671,352 people, China is home to roughly 17.72% of the world's population and ranks #2 among the countries on this list. Its population density of 149/km² is about 2.4 times the world average of 62 people per km², across a total area of 9,596,961 km².

Growth trend

China's population is shrinking at -0.02% per year, a loss of roughly 285,134 people annually. If that rate held steady, the population would fall to about 1,422,822,574 in ten years. Declines like this usually reflect fertility below the replacement level of about 2.1 children per woman. Real growth rarely stays constant, so treat these figures as a simple projection rather than a forecast.

Compared with nearby countries in the ranking