China covered a total of 3.7 million square miles and is divided into 22 provinces, 4 municipalities (Beijing ,Shanghai , Tianjin and Chongqing), and 5 autonomous regions (Guangxi, Zhuang, Nei Mongole, Ningxia Hui, Xingjiang Uygur, and Tibet ).

The total population for mainland China was 1,338.61 million by the end of 2009. China's population is expected to increase by about 10 million a year, hitting a peak of 1.46 billion in the 2030s. Of the total population, over 80 percent live in the eastern half of the country. Those living in urban areas were 502.12 million, accounting for 39.1 percent and those living in rural areas were 782.41 million, accounting for 60.9 percent. The proportion of population aged from 0 to 14 years was 22.4 percent, that aged 15-64 years was 70.3 percent. The proportion of population aged 65 and over was 7.3 percent with total aged population standing at 93.77 million. 

China experienced one of the fastest demographic transitions in history in the second half of the twentieth century. Mortality rates decreased and average life expectancy rose from 42 years in 1950 to 73 in 1997. Fertility rates fell from an average of 6 children per woman in 1950 and the average family size was 3.58 persons in 1999.

Trends towards urbanization and a shift in population from the agricultural to the service sector have continued since the 1990s. For example, the urban population increased from 30.9 percent to 37.7 percent from 1999 to 2001, 86.8 millions people moved from the countryside to the cities, which provide urban areas with a great number of cheap labour and a new market segment.