On June 6, 2019, associate researcher Cuiling Zhang of the China Population and Development Research Center (CPDRC) visited the Asian Demographic Research Institute (ADRI) at Shanghai University. Zhang gave a talk entitled “The demographic dynamics of China and the mapping of diversified data sources for fertility, mortality and migration estimation in China: a general review.” The event was hosted by Professor Leiwen Jiang, director of ADRI.
Zhang began her talk by presenting an overview of the demographic dynamics of China, including the fertility transition, the trajectory of mortality decline, and the migration process across time and space. She then mapped out the evolution of family planning policies and household registration (hukou) reform, in which key demographic events are embedded. She also shared findings from her latest exploration of fertility and sex ratio at birth at the provincial level. Additionally, Zhang outlined the diverse sources of data used in studies of fertility, mortality and migration, how these data are collected, and the virtues and limitations of various data sources. At the conclusion of her talk, Zhang and participants discussed data-related challenges for future subnational demographic studies.