Land use in China
China has four times the population of the U.S., within roughly the same area. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, 20% of the world’s population lives in China. While the rate of population growth has been declining for decades, the total number of inhabitants has been growing and is expected to do so through 2030. China’s urban population is growing rapidly; between 1950 and 2009, the percentage of the population living in urban areas quadrupled from 14% to 48%. Meanwhile, the rural population is declining, opening the landscape in areas that are not urbanized. The forests and farming land of eastern China support far more people and major cities than do the grasslands, deserts, and high mountain regions of the west.
Chinese people in Senegal
In 2004, the PRC's official "People's Daily" published an estimate of 300 Chinese in Senegal. In 2008, the "South China Morning Post" published official numbers from an unspecified source stating that 150 Chinese families totalling 200 to 300 people lived in Dakar alone, but Chinese in Senegal who were interviewed estimated the true number might be as high as 1,000. Another report by Radio Australia's Chinese edition in January 2009 put the total number at 2,000.