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China Density and Distribution
Overall population density in 1986 was about 109 people per
square kilometer. Density was only about one-third that of Japan
and less than that of many other countries in Asia and in Europe.
The overall figure, however, concealed major regional variations
and the high person-land ratio in densely populated areas. In the
11 provinces, special municipalities, and autonomous regions along
the southeast coast, population density was 320.6 people per square
kilometer
(see
fig. 5).
In 1986 about 94 percent of the population lived on
approximately 36 percent of the land. Broadly speaking, the
population was concentrated in China Proper, east of the mountains
and south of the Great Wall. The most densely populated areas
included the Chang Jiang Valley (of which the delta region was the
most populous), Sichuan Basin, North China Plain, Zhu Jiang Delta,
and the industrial area around the city of Shenyang in the
northeast.
Population is most sparse in the mountainous, desert, and
grassland regions of the northwest and southwest. In Nei Monggol
Autonomous Region, portions are completely uninhabited, and only a
few sections have populations more dense than ten people per square
kilometer. The Nei Monggol, Xinjiang, and Xizang autonomous regions
and Gansu and Qinghai provinces comprise 55 percent of the
country's land area but in 1985 contained only 5.7 percent of its
population (see
table 7, Appendix A).
Data as of July 1987
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