China: A Billion or So

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Plus an extra 43,200 every day

Q. How many Chinese does it take to complete a census?

A. About 6 million to do the counting, and a billion or so more to stand around and watch. To be precise, it takes 1,008,175,288. That figure, released last week, is the official result of China's first nationwide nose counting since 1964. The preliminary totals show that over the past 18 years the mainland has added more than 313 million people. Of the total, 51.5% are men, and about 80% (or more than 800 million) still live in the largely impoverished countryside. A staggering 236 million (23%) are reported to be either illiterate or semiliterate.

The billion-plus total comes to nearly one-quarter of the human race. If all Chinese stood in rows four abreast, 6 ft. apart, and marched through Peking's Gate of Heavenly Peace at a steady pace of 3 m.p.h., it would take more than ten years for them to pass. Though Peking's tough birth-control measures have cut population growth from 2.1% a year in 1964 to 1.4% a year now, a baby is born every two seconds. -