China population 2023

Chinese COVID cases are again climbing as immunity from vaccines and infections wanes. Credit: Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock The latest surge in COVID-19 cases in China is not surprising to researchers, who say that the country will see an infection cycle every six months now that all COVID-19 restrictions have been removed and highly infectious variants are dominant. But they caution that rolling waves of infection carry the risk of new variants emerging. “Unfortunately, a new reality with this virus [is that] we will have repeated infections,” says Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle. “The fear is that this virus will produce a new variant that can compete with the current ones and is more severe.” The current surge is caused mainly by a highly infectious subvariant of Omicron called XBB.1.5, first identified in India last August. According to Nanshan Zhong, a prominent respiratory physician in China, as many as 65 million people could become infected per week by the of end this month. This is the first major reinfection wave that China has seen since the central government dropped all its COVID-19 control measures in December, prompting a widespread Omicron outbreak. China has vaccinated more than 90% of its population, and the outbreak in December infected at least 85% of its people, says Zhong. But immunity is waning, and XBB can evade protection from vaccines an...

Understanding the reasons why people die helps with the understanding of how they lived, in order to improve health services and reduce preventable deaths in every country, responding effectively to changing circumstances. Annual monitoring of causes of death allows countries to address their causes and adapt health systems to react effectively. The leading causes of death are statistical estimates based on available data. These estimates are produced using data from multiple sources, including national vital registration data, latest estimates from WHO technical programmes, United Nations partners and inter-agency groups, as well as the Global Burden of Disease and other scientific studies. Before publishing, they are reviewed by WHO Member States through consultation with national focal points and WHO country and regional offices. The top ten causes of death are statistical estimates based on available data. Death registration data is unavailable or unusable for China due to quality issues. Estimates of mortality by cause should be interpreted with caution. These estimates may be used for priority setting, however, they are not likely to be informative for policy evaluation or comparisons among countries.

The administrative divisions of In total, China has over 160 cities that have a population of over 1 million people. China also has metropolitan areas that encapsulate densely populated urban areas with suburban areas and rural areas that are more sparsely populated. According to 2010 data, about 674 million people reside in one of China’s many rural areas.