Population

There are 1.3 billion people living in China today. This is the largest population of any country on earth. Of these people, 1.25 billion live in China Proper. This makes things very crowded indeed. Sure, China is the third largest country in terms of square mileage, but two-thirds of China is nearly uninhabitable. Everyone is crowded into the more favorable agricultural lands. Be sure to take a look at the population map of China on p.347 in your text.

More than 50% of China's population are farmers. Most of these farmers are subsistence farmers (only growing enough food for themselves and their livestock). The standard of living in the cities is much better than for those who live in the rural areas. Yet, laws were established in 1949 to keep rural citizens from flooding the cities. Officials were worried that too many city dwellers would result in large homeless communities within their cities. The laws were established to prevent serious overcrowding in the cities. City police often made unannounced inspections to look for people who did not have permission to live in the city. These laws are not being enforced in some areas which means that more and more people are moving to the cities.