Total population:

By the end of 2003, Beijing had a stable population of 14.564 million, an increase of 332,000 people from the previous year. The birth rate was 5.1 per thousand and the mortality was 5.2 per thousand.

Population growth rate: -0.1‰.

Life expectancy: 76 years.

Ethnicity:

People of all of China's 56 ethnic groups are found in Beijing. The vast majority, 95.7 percent (13.229 million), of the city’s population belongs to the Han ethnic group. The total population of ethnic minorities is 590,000, with the Hui, Manchu and Mongolian being the major ethnic groups.

Literacy:

In 2003, Beijing had a total of 73 institutes of higher learning. The registered number of college undergraduates was 457,000, and the number of postgraduates reached 120,000. Foreign students in Beijing’s universities amounted to 17,000.

In Beijing at least 99.9 percent of school age children go to school.

Unemployment rate:

By the end of 2003, the registered unemployment rate in the city’s urban districts and towns was 1.43 percent, an increase of 0.08 percentage points from the previous year.