China releases 7th population census data

Around 850,000 foreigners living in China

By LI LEI

A total of 845,697 foreigners are living on the Chinese mainland, the latest national census showed, compared with 593,832 a decade ago.

Among them, 402,026 are male, said a report of the seventh national census, which was published by the National Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday.

The foreigners are among about 1.43 million overseas residents in China by November, the report said, which also include residents from Hong Kong (371,380), Macao (55,732) and Taiwan (157,886).

Around 600,000 of them have lived in China for more than five years, compared with about 40,000 whose stay is less than three months, it said.

More than 77,000 came to China for business, about 444,000 for employment, and about 219,000 for education. Around 420,000 came to settle down and 74,000 to pay visits to family members, the report said.

The coastal province of Guangdong has the largest number of overseas residents at about 418,000, followed by Yunnan province (379,281), Shanghai (163,954), Fujian province (106,248) and Beijing (62,812).