670 iNQi'iRY INTO thp: population of china. 



p()])ulali()ii of China proper has not only not increased during tlie 

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

 considerable number of 30,942,502. 



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

 statistics are the following: 



In 1S80 the governor of the province 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. Popoff, the interpreter of the Russian legation in China, was 

 informed in 1882 by the board of revenue in I'eking that the 

 population of this same province of Che-kiang was then 11,588,692, 

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

 that it was then 11,(384,348. 



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

 that Connnissioner of Customs Alfred E. Hippisley '' found by a 

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

 chou that the average number of persons per home was about 5.14, 

 and that the total population of the prefecture was 1,841,000. " The 

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

 population would therefore seem to be about 400 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 Che-kiang' gives it as 34,700 sijuare miles. Assuming, then, that 

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

 ]Drefecture of W^en-chou (say 325 to the square 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 Popoft' in 1882. 



The po])ulation of Che-kiang, according to the above figures, 

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

 11,541,054 to 11,58S,(;02, or 47,(>38. From 1882 to 1885 (also three 

 years) it increased tVom 11,588,(;02 to 11,()84,348, or 05,()5(). This 

 would be an annual increase from 1870 to 1882 of 0.20() per cent, 

 and from 1882 to 1885 of 0.275 per cent, oi- an a\-erage yearly rate 

 from 1870 to 1885 of 0.240 per cent — this under the most favorable 

 possible circumstances, the countiy being blessed with peace and 

 j)lenty during all that period and for some years previously. At this 



o Peking Gazette, March 17, 1880. 



6 Trade Report of Wen-chou for 1881, pp. 27-28. 



c Statosiiian's Yearbook, 1902, p. 49r». It may be said tlint tlio returns for 

 Che-kiang sliow just tlie contrary of wliat I am seeking to prove, but it nuist 

 be seen at once bow fanciful nmst Ix' tlie returns of poitulation when the total 

 nmiih(>r in a vast i)rovince is deduced from a rougli count in a small district. 

 This is substantially the method the Chinese follow. 



