China
The Country of the Week
Quick Facts
- Capital
- Beijing
- Population
- 1,407,181,209 (2025 est.)
- Area
- 9,596,960 sq km
- Government
- communist party-led state
- Religions
- folk religion 21.9%, Buddhist 18.2%, Christian 5.1%, Muslim 1.8%, Hindu < 0.1%, Jewish < 0.1%, other 0.7% (includes Daoist (Taoist)), unaffiliated 52.1% (2021 est.)
- Ethnic Groups
- Han Chinese 91.1%, ethnic minorities 8.9% (includes Zhang, Hui, Manchu, Uighur, Miao, Yi, Tujia, Tibetan, Mongol, Dong, Buyei, Yao, Bai, Korean, Hani, Li, Kazakh, Dai, and other nationalities) (2021 est.)
- Currency
- Renminbi yuan (RMB)
- Life Expectancy
- 78.7 years (2024 est.)
- Internet Domain
- .cn
- Climate
- extremely diverse; tropical in south to subarctic in north
- Terrain
- mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in west; plains, deltas, and hills in east
- Natural Resources
- coal, iron ore, helium, petroleum, natural gas, arsenic, bismuth, cobalt, cadmium, ferrosilicon, gallium, germanium, hafnium, indium, lithium, mercury, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, antimony, manganese, magnesium, molybdenum, selenium, strontium, vanadium, magnetite, aluminum, lead, zinc, rare earth elements, uranium, hydropower potential (world's largest), arable land
- Major Exports
- broadcasting equipment, computers, integrated circuits, garments, machine parts (2023)
Source: CIA World Factbook (public domain)
Overview
China's historical civilization dates to at least the 13th century B.C., first under the Shang (to 1046 B.C.) and then the Zhou (1046-221 B.C.) dynasties. The imperial era of China began in 221 B.C. under the Qin Dynasty and lasted until the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1912.