China's urban residents account for 43.9 percent of the whole population by the end of 2006, up 0.9 percentage points from 2005, latest figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

China had a total population of 1.31448 billion at the end of last year, an annual increase of 6.92 million, the bureau said in a report released on Wednesday.

Males accounted for 51.5 percent of the whole population at the end of 2006, with the ratio of newly-born males to females in 2006standing at 119.25 to 100, according to the bureau.

The country has seen the proportion of its urban population increase by around one percentage point annually in recent years.

(Xinhua News Agency March 1, 2007)