Ning Jizhe, Deputy Head of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Seventh National Population Census, Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics of China, released data on China's 7th National Population Census on May 11. The Main Data of the Census are: The national population was 1,411.78 million persons, increased by 72.06 million persons compared with the population of 1,339.72 million persons in 2010 or up by 5.38 per cent. The average annual growth rate was 0.53 per cent, down by 0.04 percentage point compared with the average annual growth rate of 0.57 per cent from 2000 to 2010. The data showed that the population of China maintained a mild growth momentum in the past decade; there were 494.16 million family households in China with 1,292.81 million persons and 28.53 million collective households with 118.97 million persons. The average size of a family household was 2.62 persons, or 0.48 person less than the 3.10 persons in 2010. The family households continued to downsize because of increasing population mobility and the fact that young people after marriage lived separately from parents with improved housing conditions; the population in the eastern region accounted for 39.93 per cent of the total, that in the central areas accounted for 25.83 per cent, that in the western region accounted for 27.12 per cent and that in the northeast China accounted for 6.98 per cent. Compared with data in 2010, the proportion of the population in the eastern region increased by 2.15 percentage points, that in the central areas decreased by 0.79 percentage point, that in the western region increased by 0.22 percentage point, and that in the northeast China decreased by 1.20 percentage points. The population further congregated in economically developed regions and city clusters; of the national population, 723.34 million persons or 51.24 per cent were males while 688.44 million persons or 48.76 per cent were females. The sex ratio (female=100, male to female) was 105.07, a slight decline compared with that in 2010; there were 253.38 million persons in the age group of 0 to 14, accounting for 17.95 per cent; 894.38 million persons in the age group of 15 to 59, accounting for 63.35 per cent; and 264.02 million persons in the age group of 60 and over, accounting for 18.70 per cent (specifically, there were 190.64 million persons in the age group of 65 and over, accounting for 13.50 per cent); compared with 2010, the number of people with university education went up from 8,930 persons to 15,467 persons per 100,000 persons. There were 218.36 million persons with university education and the illiteracy rate dropped from 4.08 per cent to 2.67 per cent; there were 901.99 million persons living in urban areas, accounting for 63.89 per cent; 509.79 million persons living in rural areas, accounting for 36.11 per cent; the number of the population who lived in places other than their household registration areas reached 492.76 million. Specifically, the population who lived in places other than their household registration but still in the same city totalled 116.94 million and the floating population numbered 375.82 million. Of the floating population, the population moving to other provinces reached 124.84 million. The census showed that China’s continued economic and social development has facilitated the population migration and mobility, the trends of which have become increasingly evident, and the size of the floating population has further grown; a breakdown of the population of Ethnic Groups revealed the population of the Han ethnic group was 1,286.31 million, accounting for 91.11 per cent; that of the ethnic minorities was 125.47 million, accounting for 8.89 per cent. Commenting on the new data, Hu Xijin, Editor-in-Chief of the Global Times tweeted (May 11) that "Chinese society has come to the consensus that it needs to make drastic adjustments to its population policy. This kind of adjustment will definitely come, and when it does, it will definitely work. It is what makes China different from the West."