China - Geography
Here, let us take a look at the Geography of China. note 1: world's fourth largest country (after Russia, Canada, and US) and largest country situated entirely in Asia; Mount Everest on the border with Nepal is the world's tallest peak above sea level
note 2: the largest cave chamber in the world is the Miao Room, in the Gebihe cave system at China's Ziyun Getu He Chuandong National Park, which encloses some 10.78 million cu m (380.7 million cu ft) of volume; the world's largest sinkhole is the Xiaoxhai Tiankeng sinkhole in Chongqing Municipality, which is 660 m deep, with a volume of 130 million cu m
note 3: China appears to have been the center of domestication for two of the world's leading cereal crops: millet in the north along the Yellow River and rice in the south along the lower or middle Yangtze River. Mother's mean age at first birth is (), whereas, the Maternal mortality ratio is 23 deaths/100,000 live births (2020 est.)
Geographical data of China
| Location | Eastern Asia, bordering the East China Sea, Korea Bay, Yellow Sea, and South China Sea, between North Korea and Vietnam |
|---|---|
| Geographic coordinates | 35 00 N, 105 00 E |
| Map references | Asia |
| Tarrain | mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east |
| Natural Resources | coal, iron ore, helium, petroleum, natural gas, arsenic, bismuth, cobalt, cadmium, ferrosilicon, gallium, germanium, hafnium, indium, lithium, mercury, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, antimony, manganese, magnesium, molybdenum, selenium, strontium, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, rare earth elements, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest), arable land |
| Natural Hazards | frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts); damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts; land subsidence volcanism: China contains some historically active volcanoes including Changbaishan (also known as Baitoushan, Baegdu, or P'aektu-san), Hainan Dao, and Kunlun although most have been relatively inactive in recent centuries |
| Irrigated Land | 690,070 sq km (2012) |
| Major rivers (by length in km) | Yangtze - 6,300 km; Huang He - 5,464 km; Amur river source (shared with Mongolia and Russia [m]) - 4,444 km; Lancang Jiang (Mekong) river source (shared with Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam [m]) - 4,350 km; Yarlung Zangbo Jiang (Brahmaputra) river source (shared with India and Bangladesh [m]) - 3,969 km; Yin-tu Ho (Indus) river source (shared with India and Pakistan [m]) - 3,610 km; Nu Jiang (Salween) river source (shared with Thailand and Burma [m]) - 3,060 km; Irrawaddy river source (shared with Burma [m]) - 2,809 km; Zhu Jiang (Pearl) (shared with Vietnam [s]) - 2,200 km; Yuan Jiang (Red river) source (shared with Vietnam [m]) - 1,149 km note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth |
| Major aquifers | North China Aquifer System (Huang Huai Hai Plain), Song-Liao Plain, Tarim Basin |
| Land Boundaries | 22,457 km |
| Border Countries | Afghanistan 91 km; Bhutan 477 km; Burma 2,129 km; India 2,659 km; Kazakhstan 1,765 km; North Korea 1,352 km; Kyrgyzstan 1,063 km; Laos 475 km; Mongolia 4,630 km; Nepal 1,389 km; Pakistan 438 km; Russia (northeast) 4,133 km and Russia (northwest) 46 km; Tajikistan 477 km; Vietnam 1,297 km |
| Coastline | 14,500 km |
| Climate | extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north |
| Area | |
| Total Area | |
| Land Area | 9,326,410 sq km |
| Water Area | 270,550 sq km |
| comparative Area | slightly smaller than the US |
| Maritime Claims | |
| Territorial sea | 12 nm |
| Contiguous zone | 24 nm |
| Exclusive economic zone | 200 nm |
| Continental shelf | 200 nm or to the edge of the continental margin |
| Elevations | |
| Highest point | Mount Everest (highest peak in Asia and highest point on earth above sea level) 8,849 m |
| Lowest point | Turpan Pendi (Turfan Depression) -154 m |
| Mean elevation | 1,840 m |
| Land Use | |
| Agricultural land | 54.7% (2018 est.) |
| Agricultural land: arable land | arable land: 11.3% (2018 est.) |
| Agricultural land: permanent crops | permanent crops: 1.6% (2018 est.) |
| Agricultural land: permanent pasture | permanent pasture: 41.8% (2018 est.) |
| Forest | 22.3% (2018 est.) |
| Other | 23% (2018 est.) |
Population Distribution
Overwhelming majority of the population is found in the eastern half of the country; the west, with its vast mountainous and desert areas, remains sparsely populated; though ranked first in the world in total population, overall density is less than that of many other countries in Asia and Europe; high population density is found along the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys, the Xi Jiang River delta, the Sichuan Basin (around Chengdu), in and around Beijing, and the industrial area around Shenyang
People and Society
In China, the different Ethnic groups are such that we have: Han Chinese 91.1%, ethnic minorities 8.9% (includes Zhang, Hui, Manchu, Uighur, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongol, Dong, Buyei, Yao, Bai, Korean, Hani, Li, Kazakh, Dai, and other nationalities) (2021 est.)
| Population | |
|---|---|
| Pop growth rate | 0.23% (2024 est.) |
| Birth rate | 10.2 births/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
| Death rate | 7.7 deaths/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
| Health expenditure | 5.6% of GDP (2020) |
| Physicians Density | |
| Hospital bed Density | 4.3 beds/1,000 population (2017) |
| Total fertility rate | 1.55 children born/woman (2024 est.) |
| Gross reproduction rate | 0.74 (2024 est.) |
| Contraceptive prevalence rate | 84.5% (2017) |
| Est married women (ages 15-49) | 75.9% (2023 est.) |
| Literacy | age 15 and over can read and write |
| Education expenditures | 3.6% of GDP (2020 est.) |
| Net Migration rate | -0.1 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2024 est.) |
| Nationality | Chinese | Chinese (singular and plural) |
| Languages | |
| Religions | folk religion 21.9%, Buddhist 18.2%, Christian 5.1%, Muslim 1.8%, Hindu < 0.1%, Jewish < 0.1%, other 0.7% (includes Daoist (Taoist)), unaffiliated 52.1% (2021 est.) |
| Age Structure | |
| 0-14 years | 16.3% (male 122,644,111/female 107,926,176) |
| 15-64 years | 69.3% (male 505,412,555/female 476,599,793) |
| 65 years and over | 14.4% (2024 est.) (male 94,144,838/female 109,315,797) |
| Dependency Ratios | |
| Total dependency ratio | 44.5 |
| Youth dependency ratio | 25.5 |
| Elderly dependency ratio | 19 |
| Potential support ratio | 5.3 (2021 est.) |
| Median Age | |
| Total | 40.2 years (2024 est.) |
| Male | 39 years |
| Female | 41.5 years |
| Urbanization | |
| Urban population | 64.6% of total population (2023) |
| Rate of urbanization | 1.78% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.) |
| Major urban areas (Pop) | 29.211 million Shanghai, 21.766 million BEIJING (capital), 17.341 million Chongqing, 14.284 million Guangzhou, 14.239 million Tianjin, 13.073 million Shenzhen (2023). |
| Sex Ratio | |
| At birth | 1.09 male(s)/female |
| 0-14 years | 1.14 male(s)/female |
| 15-64 years | 1.06 male(s)/female |
| 65 years and over | 0.86 male(s)/female |
| Total population | 1.04 male(s)/female (2024 est.) |
| Infant Motality | |
| Total | 6.2 deaths/1,000 live births (2024 est.) |
| Male | 6.7 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Female | 5.7 deaths/1,000 live births |
| Life Expectancy at birth | |
| Total population | 78.7 years (2024 est.) |
| Male | 76 years |
| Female | 81.7 years |
| Drinking Water Sources | |
| Improved: urban | urban: 97.3% of population |
| Improved: rural | rural: 91.5% of population |
| Improved: total | total: 95.1% of population |
| Unimproved: urban | urban: 2.7% of population |
| Unimproved: rural | rural: 8.5% of population |
| Unimproved: total | total: 4.9% of population (2020 est.) |
| Sanitation facility acess | |
| Improved: urban | urban: 97.6% of population |
| Improved: rural | rural: 90.6% of population |
| Improved: total | total: 94.9% of population |
| Unimproved: urban | urban: 2.4% of population |
| Unimproved: rural | rural: 9.4% of population |
| Unimproved: total | total: 5.1% of population (2020 est.) |
| Alcohol consumption per capita | |
| Total | 4.48 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
| Beer | 1.66 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
| Wine | 0.18 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
| Spirits | 2.63 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
| Other alcohols | 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.) |
| Tobacco use | |
| Total | 25.6% (2020 est.) |
| Male | 49.4% (2020 est.) |
| Female | 1.7% (2020 est.) |
| Child marriage | |
| Women married by age 15 | 0.1% |
| Women married by age 18 | 2.8% |
| Men married by age 18 | 0.7% (2020 est.) |
Demographic profile
All Important Facts about China
Want to know more about China? Check all different factbooks for China below.
