Table - Cumulative distribution of China's land area and population density

Data - Population
Cumulative Distribution of China's Land Area and Population Density
Cumulative land area	Cumulative population	Cumulative percent of land	Cumulative percent of population	Average population density
47,297	114,837	0.5	10	2,428
170,445	230,247	1.8	20	1,351
336,812	346,163	3.5	30	1,028
534,411	460,545	5.6	40	862
778,021	576,063	8.2	50	740
1,078,453	691,192	11.3	60	641
1,486,455	806,126	15.6	70	542
2,070,090	921,771	21.7	80	445
2,927,574	1,036,728	30.7	90	354
9,543,280	1,152,355	100.0	100	121
Note: Due to missing data in some counties and city districts, the cumulative land area reported here is less than the total land area of China.
Source: Heilig, G.K. (1997): Anthropogenic Factors in Land-use Change in China. In: Population and Development Review, Vol. 23, No. 1, 139-168
The table should be read as follows: Nearly 115 million people (or 10 percent of the population) live in an area of only 47,000 km2. This is just 0.5 percent of the total landmass of China. The average population density in these most densely populated counties and cities is 2,428 people per km2. Fifty percent of the Chinese population lives in an area of 778,000 km2, which represents only about 8.2 percent of the total land. These areas have an average population density of 740 persons per km2. Roughly one billion Chinese (or more than 90 percent of the population) live in only a little more than 30 percent of the country’s land area. The population density of this area is 354 persons per km2. See also the table on Population by Precipitation Zones.

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Revision 2.0 (First revision published in 1999) - Copyright � 2011 by Gerhard K. Heilig. All rights reserved. (First revision: Copyright � 1999 by IIASA.)