The voluminous data generated by China’s latest census have provided
almost infinite opportunities for social scientists to study many aspects of
the world’s largest population and to gain a fuller picture of China’s
rapidly changing society. The articles in this special issue of The China
Review represent a selection of works on demography, society and
economy by some of the most active scholars in these fields, who have
been quick to take advantage of this opportunity. Earlier versions of all the
articles, with one exception, were presented in 2002 at one or both of the
two international meetings held in Hong Kong and Seattle, both of which
devoted substantial or exclusive attention to the Chinese Census 2000.1
Individually and collectively, these articles present many exciting research
findings based on this great resource. The works contained in this issue
include the latest and most comprehensive estimates of the number of
“truly missing girls” by Cai and Lavely; analysis of mortality by Li and
Sun; of the urbanization trend by Chan and Hu; of the relationship between
migration and unemployment by Cai and Wang; and of the latest elderly
living arrangements by Zeng and Wang. Furthermore, Wang explores the
possibilities of using the Census data to study housing inequality and
related issues, while Yang’s research note compares the sectoral and
occupational structures of migrants and locals in Wuhan