China’s population grew by 73.9 million in 10 years

Beijing announced on Thursday that China’s population—already the largest on the planet—increased by 73.9 million in the past decade.

In 1953, when China’s first census was taken, the nation had a total population of 594 million, which is less than half the current figure. The population of China in 2000 was 1.265 billion, and in 2010, it leapt up to 1.339 billion.

So in 10 years, China’s population has increased by about the population of Turkey. The increase alone is also greater than the combined populations of Poland and Canada.

The 2010 figure was published by the National Bureau of Statistics, which released the data from the most recent census at a briefing in Beijing.

China has said that its “one child” population-control policy, which limits most Chinese people to having one child, has averted 400 million births since the policy was enacted in 1980, but the population is still rising at an alarming rate. In light of such momentous population growth, it’s easier to see how the Bible’s prophecies of an army of 200 million soldiers from a bloc of Asian nations will be fulfilled.

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