Toothbrushes, and Canoes: How to Count 1.3 Billion (Wary) People,American citizens may have been wary of the recent census, but not nearly as wary as their Chinese counterparts. With many worried about penalties they will have to pay for violating laws, census workers in China face a difficult challenge, and often resort to unconventional methods of counting the countries estimated 1.3 billion people.
How many Chinese people did you meet up with this week? To you this question may seem inconsequential but there are no less than six million Chinese who have been seeking to meet an even greater number of Chinese to gather details about them. Sound complicated? The Chinese think so too. Last Monday China set off to take the world’s largest census with the goal of counting an estimated 1.3 billion people.
In the previous census which took place a decade ago “only” 1.27 billion Chinese were counted. A .03 increase may seem insignificant at first glance but when discussing billions that represents 30 million additional people in 10 years — equivalent to approximately 10% of America’s entire population.
And that figure only represents recorded births. There is suspicion that many births go unreported due to China’s one-china law and this is what census takers are trying to determine.
“Census benefits all” scream billboards on every street corner — in Chinese and in English — and “Mother don’t forget to tell the census-taker: I’m part of the census too ”
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