Expats to be counted in 2010 national census

The trial census conducted in Seasons Park this week. CFP Photo

By Han Manman

Expats are for the first time to be included in the national census because of their growing numbers in the country, Beijing officials said.

Expats, as well as residents of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, living on the Chinese mainland will be counted in the 2010 census that will begin November.

Information collected by the census will include name, age, nationality, reasons for coming to China, educational background, profession, length of stay in the country and address in the last six months, according to the Municipal Statistics Bureau.

“More expats are coming in, and China has seen an increasing trend of labor migration and differences in registered and actual residences,” said Xing Zhihong, spokesman for Beijing’s census group.

“Compared with expats’ registry with the border police, this census aims to know more,” Xing said, adding that some expats enter China through border cities like Guangzhou but live and work in other cities like Beijing. The sixth national census aims to know the general situation of their live here.

But the information gathering will not involve personal questions, Xing said, adding that expats can be assured the information they share with the census group will remain confidential.

For a trial run Monday, the Beijing statistics bureau chose to visit communities in Dongzhimen and Wangjing, key residential areas for expats.

In Seasons Park, an upscale neighborhood in Dongzhimen with one-third of the 2,000 households composed of foreigners, some 20 census workers and English-speaking volunteers in four groups knocked on doors.

Their job was to ensure that all residents knew the decennial census was coming and to assist the city statistics bureau with its implementation, said Ji Dongmei, a spokeswoman for the management association of Seasons Park.

Jin said the association also assigned staff members to accompany the census workers to ensure their work went smoothly. But she said there have been some difficulty locating expat residents who have a busy work schedule or who may also have a home in other cities.

The door-to-door data-collection on China’s population will employ 6 million enumerators. In Beijing, 100,000 will be summoned to the mission, which will for the first time be joined by volunteers fluent in foreign languages, mostly college students.