How does China undertake its huge national population census?

中国如何开展大规模人口普查？

王淑怡 供稿

China's seventh national census has officially kicked off on November 3. As one of the world's most populous countries, how does China count its huge population?

中国第七次全国人口普查已于11月3日正式启动。作为世界上人口最多的国家之一，中国要如何统计其庞大的人口？

What information will be collected?

人口普查将收集哪些信息？

Tracking down more than 1 billion Chinese citizens is by no means easy. According to Xinhua, about seven million enumerators will knock on doors to collect personal information such as names, ID numbers, gender, ethnicity, age, marital status, residence, as well as education and professional information. All residents, including people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, as well as foreign citizens living in China, are included in the survey. But foreign citizens transiting through China on either business or tourist visas and Chinese citizens who have settled abroad will be excluded.

对十亿多中国公民进行人口普查并非易事。根据新华社报道，约700万名人口普查员将挨家挨户进行走访，收集个人信息，包括姓名、身份证号码、性别、民族、年龄、婚姻状况、居住地、受教育程度和职业等。此次人口普查的对象还将包括在境内居住的港澳台居民和外国人。但是，持商务签证或旅游签证入境中国的外国公民和已在国外定居的中国公民将不参加此次人口普查。

What's new this year?

今年的人口普查“新”在哪？

The country conducts a national census about every 10 years. This year, citizens are being encouraged to use cell phones and other digital tools to declare their information. When census takers knock on your door, you can answer the questions by registering the information directly on the form provided or have it entered on your behalf. If needed, the census taker will offer you an account number and a QR code so that you can keep it and register your information within a certain time. The reason why the traditional method of collecting information is still being used is that many seniors and people in poor areas don't know how to use smartphones.

中国大约每十年进行一次全国人口普查。今年，政府鼓励公民使用手机和其他电子产品自主填报信息。普查员在入户摸底时，住户可以直接在提供的表格上填写信息，或让其他人代替填写。住户如需自主填报，普查员可以提供一个账号和二维码，住户保存后就可以在一定时间内填报信息。由于许多老年人和贫困地区的人们不会使用智能手机，因此，传统收集信息的方法依旧会被采用。

How is your information security protected?

如何确保信息安全？

The whole process of the census has been regulated by the Statistics Law of the People's Republic of China and Regulations on the National Census to keep people's information secure. Under the law, census takers are required to show certificates to residents, stating they are official census representatives and are legally obligated to keep individual information confidential. And this year, for the first time, all information collected is filled in through the internet and is directly uploaded to the national database in real time, eliminating possible human interference. According to officials, both the mobile end and the server end have adopted highly strict data encryption and desensitization technology so that personal information cannot be hacked or disclosed during the process of data transmission.

《中华人民共和国统计法》和《全国人口普查条例》对人口普查的整个流程进行了规范，以确保人民的信息安全。根据法律规定，人口普查员必须主动向住户出示证件，表明身份，不得泄露普查对象的个人信息。此外，今年的人口普查首次通过互联网填写信息，信息收集完毕后将实时上传至国家数据库，尽可能地消除了人为干扰。据官方人员称，移动端和服务器端都采用了高度严格的数据加密和脱敏技术，保证公民个人信息在数据传输过程中不会遭到黑客攻击或泄露。

【Vocabulary】

1. national census 全国人口普查

2. enumerator n. 人口普查员

3. tourist visa 旅游签证

4. QR code 二维码

5. data encryption 数据加密

6. desensitization n. 脱敏（即对敏感数据进行变形处理，其目的是保护隐私数据等信息的安全）