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.
Demographic dividend
China’s current independence ratio of 38 is unprecedentedly low. This represents the number of dependents, children, and people over 65 per 100 working adults. This implies that there are nearly twice as many working age people as the rest of the population. This historically low dependency ratio has been extremely beneficial for China’s unprecedented period of economic growth. This dramatic shift was brought about largely due to China’s one-child policy. As a result, China is currently aging at an unprecedented rate. China will be older than the United States by 2020 and than Europe by 2030. Combined with the sex-selective abortions widely practiced as a result of the one-child policy – China will have 96.5 million men in their 20s in 2025 but only 80.3 million young women. China’s future demography holds many challenges for the Chinese government.