Reporters' Log

Full text of China's 2008 statistical communiqué of economic, social development

By (Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-27 17:59

XII. Resources, Environment and Work Safety

A total of 191.6 thousand hectares of cultivated land was used for construction purpose in 2008. An area of 24.8 thousand hectares of cultivated land was destroyed by disasters, 7.6 thousand hectares of farmland was converted into land for ecological preservation. The structural adjustment to agriculture led to a reduction of 24.9 thousand hectares of cultivated land. Land reclamation and re-development programs added 229.6 thousand hectares of cultivated land. As a result, the year 2008 witnessed a net reduction of 19.3 thousand hectares of cultivated land.

The total stock of water resources in 2008 was 2,712.7 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percent, or 2,048 cubic meters in per capita terms, up by 6.9 percent. The annual average precipitation was 659 millimeters, up by 8.0 percent. Large reservoirs in China stored 196.2 billion cubic meters of water at the end of 2008, 9.3 billion cubic meters more than that at the end of 2007. Total water consumption went up by 0.4 percent to reach 584.0 billion cubic meters, of which water consumption for living purposes rose by 0.6 percent, for industrial use up by 1.8 percent, for agricultural use down by 0.2 percent, and for ecological water supplement down by 0.7 percent. Water consumption for every 10 thousand yuan worth of GDP produced was 231.8 cubic meters, a decline of 7.9 percent. Water consumption for every 10 thousand yuan worth of industrial value added was 130.3 cubic meters, down by 7.0 percent. Per capita water consumption was 440.9 cubic meters, down by 0.1 percent.

National land surveys and geological explorations discovered a total of 209 new mineral deposits in large or medium size, including 38 energy mineral deposits, 90 metallic mineral deposits, 79 non-metallic mineral deposits and 2 aqueous and gaseous deposits. Increased reserves were found for 57 minerals, including 1.34 billion tons of crude oil, 647.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 23.11 billion tons of coal.

A total of 4.77 million hectares of forest were planted, of which 3.29 million were afforested by manpower. Some 3.12 million hectares were afforested through key afforestation projects, accounting for 65.4 percent of the total planted area of the year. About 2.31 billion trees were planted in 2008 by volunteers. By the end of 2008, there were 2,538 natural reserves including 303 national ones. A total of 47 thousand square kilometers of eroded land were put under comprehensive treatment programs, and 26 thousand square kilometers of land were closed for nurture and protection in areas suffering water and soil erosion.

Preliminary estimation indicated that the total energy consumption in 2008 amounted to 2.85 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, up 4.0 percent over 2007. The consumption of coal was 2.74 billion tons, up 3.0 percent; crude oil 360 million tons, up 5.1 percent; natural gas 80.7 billion cubic meters, up 10.1 percent; and electric power 3,450.2 billion kilowatt hours, up 5.6 percent. The national energy consumption per 10,000 yuan went down by 4.59 percent. The consumption of major kinds of raw materials included 540 million tons of rolled steel, up 4.2 percent; 5.38 million tons of copper, up by 6.9 percent; 12.60 million tons of electrolytic aluminum, up by 4.3 percent; 9.98 million tons of ethylene, down by 2.9 percent; and 1.37 billion tons of cement, up 3.5 percent.

Monitoring of water quality on 409 sections of the 7 major water systems in China showed that 55.0 percent of the sections met the national quality standard from Grade I to Grade III for surface water, up by 5.1 percentage points; and 20.8 percent were worse than Grade V, down by 2.8 percentage points compared with that in the previous year. Generally, the water quality in the 7 major water systems continued to improve with some river basins still having serious pollution.

Monitoring of oceanic water quality at 301 offshore monitoring stations indicated that oceanic water met the national quality standard Grade I and II in 70.4 percent of the stations, up by 7.6 percentage points from the previous year; water quality at 11.3 percent of the stations met Grade III standard, down by 0.5 percentage points; and water of Grade IV or inferior quality was found at 18.3 percent of the stations, down by 7.0 percentage points. A total of 137 thousand square kilometers of oceanic waters did not meet the quality standard for clean oceanic water, a decrease of 8 thousand square kilometers. Of this total, seriously polluted oceanic area occupied 25 thousand square kilometers. Seriously polluted oceanic area in Bohai Sea occupied 3 thousand square kilometers.

In the 519 cities covered by air quality monitoring program, 399 cities reached or topped air quality standard Grade II, accounting for 76.9 percent of all cities under the program; 113 cities attained Grade III, accounting for 21.8 percent; and air quality in 7 cities was inferior to Grade III, accounting for 1.3 percent. Of the 392 cities subject to noise monitoring program, 7.9 percent enjoyed fairly good environment, 63.8 percent had good environment, 27.0 percent had light noise pollution, and 1.3 percent experienced medium noise pollution in downtown areas.

The average temperature in 2008 was 9.6℃, which was 0.5℃ lower than that in previous year. Typhoon hit China 10 times in 2008, 2 more compared with that in 2007.

At the end of 2008, the daily treatment capacity of city sewage reached 82.95 million cubic meters, up 16.1 percent over that in 2007. City sewage treatment rate was 65.3 percent, up 2.4 percentage points. The floor space with central heating systems amounted to 3.21 billion square meters, up 6.6 percent. Greenery coverage reached 31.6 percent of the urban area, up 0.3 percentage point.

In 2008, natural disasters caused 1,175.2 billion yuan worth of direct economic loss, 4.0 times more than that in previous year. Natural disasters hit 39.99 million hectares of crops, down 18.4 percent, of which 4.03 million hectares of crops was demolished, down 29.8 percent. The year 2008 witnessed 13 thousand forest fires, up by 45.2 percent. Floods and waterlog caused a direct economic loss of 63.5 billion yuan, down by 23.1 percent and left a death roll of 686, down by 41.3 percent. Drought caused a direct economic loss of 30.7 billion yuan, down by 60.9 percent. Oceanic disasters caused a direct economic loss of 20.6 billion yuan, increased by 1.3 times. The occurrence of red tides hit an accumulative area of 13,738 square kilometers, up by 18.3 percent. Disasters from low temperature, frost and snow made a total direct economic loss of 159.5 billion yuan with a death roll of 162. China registered 27 thousand geological disasters which left a death doll of 656 and made a total direct economic loss of 18.37 billion yuan. The country recorded 87 earthquakes with magnitude 5 and over, 17 of which caused disasters, causing a direct economic loss of 852.3 billion yuan and leaving a death roll of 70 thousand. Of this total, Sichuan Wenchuan Earthquake recorded 8.0-magnitude, causing a direct economic loss of 845.1 billion yuan.

The death toll due to work accidents amounted to 91,172 people, a year-on-year decrease of 10.2 percent. The death toll from work accidents every 100 million yuan worth of GDP was 0.312 people, a decline of 24.5 percent. Work accidents in industrial, mining and commercial enterprises caused 2.82 deaths out of every 100 thousand employees, down 7.5 percent. The death toll for producing one million tons of coal in coalmines was 1.182 persons, down 20.4 percent. The year 2008 witnessed 265 thousand traffic accidents, claiming 73 thousand lives, injuring 305 thousand people and causing a direct property loss of 1.01 billion yuan. The road traffic death toll per 10 thousand vehicles was 4.3 persons, a decrease of 0.8 person.

Notes:

1. All figures in this Communiqué are preliminary statistics.

2. Statistics in this Communiqué do not include Hong Kong SAR, Macao SAR and Taiwan Province.

3. Due to the rounding-off reasons, the subentries may not add up to the aggregate totals.

4. Gross domestic product (GDP) and value added as quoted in this Communiqué are calculated at current prices, whereas their growth rates are at constant prices.

5. Six highly energy-consuming industries are: manufacture of raw chemical materials and chemical products, manufacture of non-metallic mineral products, smelting and pressing of ferrous metals, smelting and pressing of non-ferrous metals, oil processing, coking and nuclear fuel processing, and production and supply of electricity and heat.

6. Output and consumption of rolled steel include duplicated counting of rolled steel as intermediate inputs used for producing other types of rolled steel.

7. The national total of fixed assets investment is larger than the aggregate sum by adding up the subtotals of fixed assets investment in the eastern areas, central areas, and western areas due to the fact that some of the trans-regional investments are not covered by regional figures.

8. The investment in real estate includes the investment made in real estate development, construction of buildings for own use, property management, intermediary services and other real estate development.

9. The original premium income received by the insurance companies refers to the premium income from original insurance contracts confirmed by the insurance companies.

10. The number of people covered in urban basic health insurance programs for urban staff and workers include staff and workers and retirees insured. The urban basic health insurance programs for urban residents refer to urban non-employed residents who are not covered by the urban basic health insurance programs for staff and workers.

11. Statistics on poverty population in rural areas are based on the newly revised rural poverty line, which is incomparable with historical data.

12. The consumption of water for producing 10 thousand yuan worth of GDP is calculated at 2005 constant prices. The turnover of post and telecommunication services is calculated at constant prices of 2000.

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