China's population had risen to 1.306 billion by November 1, 2005, up 3.2 percent, from the figure on November 1, 2000 when the Fifth National Population Census was conducted, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Thursday.

The figures are the outcome of China's third one-percent sample census conducted on November 1, 2005. The Chinese government started in the 1980s to punctuate thorough National Censuses with sample censuses, which sample one percent of the population.

Based on the sample census, researchers put China's population at 1.307 billion by the end of 2005.

The country's population has grown at an annual rate of 0.63 percent or 8.09 million people in the past five years, the report said.

According to the sample census, more than 11 percent of the population are the people of 60 or above and men and women each account for 51.53 percent and 48.47 percent of the population, indicating the prolonged pressure of a graying population and gender imbalance in China.

The census also set the transient population in China at 147.35 million.

China, the most populous country with over 1.3 billion people, has so far carried out five national censuses in the past 56 years since 1949.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2006)