China began its census Monday, a 10-day process that will see six million census takers go door-to-door to document the demographic changes taking place in the country, AP reported. The massive head count takes place once every 10 years, and the 2000 tally put China’s official population at 1.295 billion people. Over the ensuing decade there has been an extensive shift in the population base, with millions of migrant workers moving to urban areas from the countryside. Although this is the country’s sixth national census, it will be the first in which people are counted by where they live as opposed to where their residence certificate, or hukou, is legally registered. This should make it easier to calculate the true size of China’s cities. Census takers will have to overcome people’s privacy concerns as well as complications tied to the number of children born in violation of the one-child policy, which sees many births go unregistered.
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