What the Data Shows
China’s 2025 population survey estimated 452.83 million people with junior secondary education, the largest of the four published attainment groups. Primary education followed at 331.22 million, while university or junior college and above accounted for 272.33 million. The four groups totaled 1,299.10 million people, equal to 92.4% of the estimated national population of 1,405.45 million. The values are official survey estimates rather than final census counts, and the remaining population is not assigned to an invented education category.
Data table
Unit: million people · Period: 1 November 2025
| Rank | Entry | Value | Period |
|---|
| 1 | Junior secondary | 452.83M | 1 Nov. 2025 estimate |
| 2 | Primary school | 331.22M | 1 Nov. 2025 estimate |
| 3 | University / college+ | 272.33M | 1 Nov. 2025 estimate |
| 4 | Senior secondary | 242.72M | 1 Nov. 2025 estimate |
Sources
Source 1: Communiqué of the 1% National Population Survey in 2025
Publisher: National Bureau of Statistics of China
Dataset/table: 2025 1% National Population Survey — educational attainment
Units: million persons
Date checked: 2026-07-18
Evidence: Supports four educational-attainment counts and the estimated national population at the 1 November 2025 survey reference time.
Data notes & caveats
The reference time was 00:00 on 1 November 2025. The four published groups do not exhaust the national population, and the values are survey estimates rather than final census counts.
Methodology
The four attainment groups explicitly published by the NBS are ranked by estimated population. Shares use the estimated national population from the same survey as the denominator.
Source consistency notes
All four counts and the national denominator use the same NBS 1% population survey, reference time and million-person unit.
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