Education: 2020 Population Census, population aged 15 and over (exact tabulations). Income: 2023 official per-capita disposable income plus the CFPS age profile. Generated on 2026-09-15.
- National population by age and educational attainment (2020) — China Population Census Yearbook 2020, Table 4-1, "Population aged 3 and over by age, sex and educational attainment", compiled by the Leading Group of the State Council for the Seventh National Population Census, China Statistics Press, 2022.
Official table image: https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/pcsj/rkpc/7rp/zk/html/A0401.jpg (yearbook index: https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/pcsj/rkpc/7rp/zk/indexch.htm)
- Provincial population by educational attainment (2020) — China Population Census Yearbook 2020, Table 4-2, "Population aged 15 and over by region, sex and educational attainment".
https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/pcsj/rkpc/7rp/zk/html/A0402.jpg
- Provincial population by age group (2020) — China Population Census Yearbook 2020, Table 1-5, "Population by region, age and sex" (the original table runs from age 0, 1-4, 5-9 ... to 100 and over; ages 85 and above are merged here into "85 and over").
https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/pcsj/rkpc/7rp/zk/html/A0105.jpg
- Income levels (2023) — National Bureau of Statistics of China, China Statistical Yearbook 2024, Table 6-18 "Per-capita disposable income by region" and Table 6-2 "Per-capita disposable income of national households by income quintile".
https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2024/html/C06-18.jpg https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2024/html/C06-02.jpg
National per-capita disposable income in 2023: 39,218 CNY; quintile group averages: 9,215 / 20,442 / 32,195 / 50,220 / 95,055 CNY.
- Age profile of income — China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), Peking University, pooled 2010-2022 sample: average income index by age group (all-age average = 100); reproduced from Figure 3 of a macro research report by Soochow Securities Research (19 May 2025).
https://m.sgpjbg.com/hyshuju/cca2dc5e25e1a96faa04ccfb7c5c40a8.html
Definitions and methodology
1. Education figures are exact tabulations of the 2020 Population Census (population aged 15 and over) and can be verified cell by cell; income figures refer to 2023.
2. The province × age × education cross-table is not published officially. It is produced here by iterative proportional fitting (IPF / raking) using the national education-by-age structure as the association structure, constrained by the provincial education margin (Table 4-2) and the provincial age margin (Table 1-5). All three official margins are reproduced (relative residuals < 1e-5), but the individual cells are estimates. The national row always uses the exact census tabulation.
3. Income by age is likewise an estimate: the CFPS age index supplies the age shape, which is calibrated so that the population-weighted average (weighted by the 2020 census age structure) equals the official 2023 national per-capita disposable income of 39,218 CNY; provincial figures are scaled in proportion to each province's 2023 per-capita disposable income. The National Bureau of Statistics does not publish income by age.
4. The income distribution is constructed directly from the published quintile group averages through a Lorenz curve (monotone PCHIP interpolation), with a Pareto tail above the 80th percentile (tail index alpha ≈ ). The quintile averages are reproduced exactly. The implied national median is CNY (the official 2023 median is 33,036 CNY). Quintile cut-offs are shown below the income heatmap.
5. Mean years of schooling, convention A (used by the National Bureau of Statistics): primary 6, junior high 9, senior high 12, junior college and above 16; no schooling and pre-school count as 0. Convention B (detailed): junior college 15, bachelor 16, master 19, doctorate 22.
6. National population aged 15 and over: 1,156,394,786. Table 4-2 and Table 1-5 agree exactly; Table 4-1 differs by 50 persons (relative error 4.3e-8).
7. "Income group" refers to the official quintile grouping of per-capita disposable income (lowest 20%, lower-middle 20%, middle 20%, upper-middle 20%, highest 20%).