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| Total Population, Crude Death Rate, Crude Birth Rate, 1949-1996 |
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Source: National Bureau of Statistics of China (various years): China Statistical Yearbook. |
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The increase in the crude death rate and the short-term decline of the crude birth rate between 1959 and 1961 where the result of famine during the Great Leap Forward. There was even a slight population decline during these crisis years. Please note that this figure shows national averages - in the most severely affected provinces the increase in mortality and the decline in births was much higher. With these and other statistics demographers could reconstruct the number of famine-related deaths. Their estimates range from 25 to more than 35 million premature deaths due to famine and famine-related diseases. |
