Demographic and Social Characteristics of Nationalities in Yunnan Province, China: Cultural Diversity and Development Indicators

This paper examines demographic and social indicators of development of the eight largest nationalities in Yunnan Province, based on micro-data from the 1982 and 1990 Censuses of China. Social and demographic measures did not vary together in the way scholars taking a unilinear view of all aspects of development might have expected. For example, there was little evidence that nationalities for which there is a highly masculine sex ratio at birth also have a large disparity in the chances of boys and girls to attend school. Hui had a very high sex ratio at birth but almost equal chances of boys and girls attending schools. Five of the eight nationalities showed a sex ratio at birth in 1989-90 above 107 births per 100 female births, which is strong evidence that members of these nationalities were doing something to limit the number of female infants reported in the census. Although Han exhibited the lowest total fertility rate, the Dai, an almost totally rural nationality with a relatively low level of education had the second lowest fertility rate.

Similarly, there was little evidence that school enrollment declined as the economic value of children increased. Between 1982 and 1990 the proportion of boys and girls who had ever attended school increased for every nationality. There is no sign of declines in school attendance in the period immediately before 1990 and no evidence that the increased economic value of children led to any decrease in school enrollment of girls in particular. For every nationality, boys were more likely to attend school than girls. The size of the gap in education by gender tended to decline between 1982 and 1990, but there were large differences among groups.

Finally, females age 35-39 in 1990 in every nationality except Han and Dai showed a lower proportion who ever attended school than members of adjacent cohorts. These women were of school age in the 1960s, at the time of the famine and its aftermath--events that seem to have had a stronger effect on the education of members of minority nationalities than on the Han.

Data used: Census of China for Yunnan Province: China, 1982 (1% sample); and Census of China for Yunnan Province: China, 1990 (12.1% sample).

Dataset(s): Census: China, 1982 and 1990.