China Studies: Data, Statistics

This PRC government agency, directly under the State Council, is responsible for the collection, investigation, research and publication of statistics concerning the nation's economy, population and other aspects of the society. It publishes the national economic and population census.

Annual or biannual questionnaire survey of China's urban and rural households, aiming to monitor systematically the changing relationship between social structure and quality of life in urban and rural China. Registration is required. Years available: 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015.

A biennial social survey project that serves as a cross-national network of four General Social Survey type surveys in East Asia -- the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), the Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS), the Korean General Social Survey (KGSS), and the Taiwan Social Change Survey (TSCS).

Provides maps and geospatially (GIS) integrated socioeconomic datasets, relating to topics such as administrative geography, hospitals and epidemiology, agriculture, and population.

An open dataset collecting economic and demographic data from over 2,700 Chinese village gazetteers, selected to provide representation, where possible, of each of China's provinces. The still-expanding dataset covers over 1,500 villages as of September 2021. Data is available for download in .csv format. Created by the East Asian Library of the University of Pittsburgh Library System.

For access please contact zhijia@uw.edu.

Annual databook issued by Taiwan's National Development Council. Available from 2001, downloadable as PDF or ODS files.

Provides the most current, complete, and accurate global development data available. Includes several sub-datasets, including the World Development Indicators (WDI) (the primary collection of development indicators compiled from officially recognized international sources), Doing Business (provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across economies), Gender Statistics (Data on key gender topics including demographics, education, health, labor force, and political participation), and many others.

The World Bank's Enterprise Surveys provide comprehensive company-level data for developing economies, covering a broad range of business environment topics including access to finance, gender, corruption, infrastructure, innovation, competition, informality, and performance measures. Firm-level surveys have been conducted since 2002 by different units within the World Bank.

A global research project aiming to explore people's values and beliefs, how these change over time, and their social and political implications. Based on representative national surveys conducted by a worldwide network of social scientists since 1981.

A freely accessible relational database with biographical information about approximately 471,000 individuals (as of November 2020), primarily from the 7th through 19th centuries. With both online and offline versions, the data is meant to be useful for statistical, social network, and spatial analysis as well as serving as a kind of biographical reference. A joint project of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, the Institute of History and Philology of Academia Sinica, and the Center for Research on Ancient Chinese History at Peking University.

A free database of historical Chinese place names and administrative units. CHGIS provides a base GIS platform for researchers to use in spatial analysis or to visualize the historical divisions of China as digital maps.

A digital tool for the study of Chinese Christianity from 1550 to 1950. Includes mapping and network analysis tools. Dataset can be downloaded for offline use. Click "beta" in the top navigation bar to enter the database.

Links to online resources for the quantitative study of contemporary and historical China; includes statistical databases, datasets, and surveys. Compiled by Clair Zhuqing Yang, assistant professor of Chinese economics in the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies.