China’s census: the good, the bad and the ugly

After a month-long delay, the key results from China’s once-a-decade census were published today. They weren’t as bad earlier media reports had suggested – the population continued to rise at much the same pace last decade as it did in the 2000s and, if anything, it appears that the annual figures for recent years may be revised up not down. But the details were less encouraging, with the census confirming that China is aging more rapidly than previously expected.