Note 23 — Chapter V · THE CHINESE PEOPLE AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

The population of China has been very variously estimated. There exist official statistics, but the question is, what faith can be placed in them? The ‘Statesman’s Year Book,’ which is generally well informed, returns 383,000,000 for China Proper, and 402,000,000 for the entire Empire. Some travellers, however, are of opinion that these figures should be greatly modified, and hold that the correct medium is between 200,000,000 and 250,000,000, because the mountainous regions are very thinly populated, and travellers erroneously form an opinion from the condition of the valleys through which they pass, which are generally densely populated.