670 INQUIRY INTO THE POPULATION OF CHINA. 



population of China proper has not only not increased during the 

 period of forty years, from 1842 to 1882, but has even diminished by the 

 considerable number of 30,942,592. 



The only reliable data I have found on the subject of Chinese vital 

 statistics are the following : 



In 1880 the governor of the j^rovince of Che-kiang reported " to 

 the Emperor that as the result of a general census of the province 

 taken in 1879 it was found that the population was 11,541,054. 



Mr. Poj:)otf, the interpreter of the Russian legation in China, Avas 

 informed in 1882 by the board of revenue in Peking that the 

 population of this same province of Chedviang was then 11,588,692, 

 and in 1885 the same board informed the writer of the present paper 

 that it was then 11,684,348. 



As corroborative evidence of the value of these figures, we learn 

 that Commissioner of Customs Alfred E. Hippisley ^ found by a 

 careful report made to him by the taotai of the prefecture of Wen- 

 cliou that the average numl)er of persons per home was about 5.14, 

 and that the total population of the prefecture was 1,841,690. " The 

 area of the prefecture being about 4,500 square miles, the average 

 l)opulation would therefore seem to be about 409 to the square mile 

 in this prefecture, and thus largely in excess of the general average 

 of the province." 



The best available information concerning the area of the province 

 of Chedviang"^' gives it as 34,700 square miles. Assuming, then, that 

 the average population to the square mile is one-fifth less than in the 

 jirefecture of W^en-chou (say 325 to the sqiiare mile), the total popu- 

 lation of the province in 1881 would have been about 11,145,000 — a 

 figure substantially agreeing with that given by the governor of the 

 province for 1879 and that supplied Popoff in 1882. 



The population of Che-kiang, according to the above figures, 

 increased from 1879 to 1882 — say about three years (1880-1) from 

 11,541,054 to 11,588,692, or 47,638. From 1882 to 1885 (also three 

 years) it increased from 11,588,692 to 11,684,348, or 95,656. This 

 would be an annual increase from 1879 to 1882 of 0.206 per cent, 

 and from 1882 to 1885 of 0.275 per cent, or an average 3^early rate 

 from 1879 to 1885 of 0.240 per cent — this under the most favorable 

 possible circumstances, the country being blessed with peace and 

 plenty during all that period and for some years previously. At this 



iPokinjr Gazette, March 17, 1S80. 



6 Trade Report of Wen-ehou for 1881, iip. 27-28. 



c Statesman's Yearbook, 1902, p. 495. It may he said that the returns for 

 Che-kiang show .iust the contrary of what I am seeking to iJrove, but it must 

 be seen at onee how fanciful nnist be 11i(> returns of jKiinilation when tlie total 

 iiuml)er in a vast provinc(> is dedu('«>(l from a rougli count in a small district. 

 This is substantially the method the Chinese follow. 



