Total population: 42.1 million (2003)

The year 2003 saw 290,000 births, with a crude birth rate of 6.90 per thousand, and 245,000 deaths, with a crude death rate of 5.83 per thousand. The net growth of population in 2003 was 70,000.

Natural growth rate: 1.07 per thousand in 2003.

Life expectancy

The average life expectancy in the province has risen to 72.09 years. The life expectancy of males is 70.55 while females are 73.85 years old.

Ethnicity

Liaoning Province has 44 ethnic groups including Han, Manchu, Mongol, Hui, Korean and Xibe. Minority population is 6.55 million, accounting for 16 percent of the province’s total. There are 5 minorities with population exceeding 10,000: Manchu, Mongol, Hui, Korean and Xibe. In addition, the population of the Zhuang, Miao, Tujia, Dawo’er and Yi ethnic groups is also comparatively large.

Education

At the end of 2003, there were 514,000 undergraduates enrolled in 69 general universities, including 164,000 new entrants. A total of 602,000 students studied in 456 senior high schools and 1.81 million students studied in 1,885 junior high schools. The attendance rate of the children of junior high school age was 99.6 percent, up by 0.3 percentage points over the previous year. Pupils enrolled in 11,339 primary schools numbered 2.89 million, including 433,000 new entrants. The attendance rate of primary school-aged children was 99.7 percent, up by 0.3 percentage points over the previous year. There were 8,429 students enrolled in special education schools.

Unemployment rate: 6.7 percent (2003)