Digital 2021: China

You’ll find our complete #Digital2021 report for China in the SlideShare embed above (click here if that’s not working for you).

This report contains all the latest internet stats, mobile stats, and social media stats for China, but read on below for essential insights into digital use in China in 2021.

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China’s population

  • China had a population of 1.44 billion in January 2021.

  • China’s population increased by 5.2 million (+0.4%) between January 2020 and January 2021.

  • 48.7% of China’s population is female, while 51.3% of its population is male [note: the United Nations does not publish data for genders other than ‘female’ and ‘male’].

  • 61.9% of China’s population lives in urban centres, while 38.1% lives in rural areas.

Internet users in China

  • There were 939.8 million internet users in China in January 2021.

  • The number of internet users in China increased by 85 million (+10.0%) between 2020 and 2021.

  • Internet penetration in China stood at 65.2% in January 2021.

Note: we no longer include data sourced from social media platforms in our internet user numbers, so the numbers shown above and in our complete Digital 2021 reports are not comparable with numbers published in our reports from previous years.

Social media statistics for China

  • There were 930.8 million social media users in China in January 2021.

  • The number of social media users in China increased by 110 million (+13%) between 2020 and 2021.

  • The number of social media users in China was equivalent to 64.6% of the total population in January 2021.

Note: Figures for social media users shown here and in our complete Digital 2021 reports may not equate to unique individuals. We have also included new sources in this year’s social media figures, so numbers shown here and in our Digital 2021 reports will not be comparable with numbers published in our previous reports.

Mobile connections in China

  • There were 1.61 billion mobile connections in China in January 2021.

  • The number of mobile connections in China increased by 8.0 million (+0.5%) between January 2020 and January 2021.

  • The number of mobile connections in China in January 2021 was equivalent to 111.8% of the total population.

Note: many people have more than one mobile connection, so figures for mobile connections may exceed 100% of the total population.

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Additional resources

Still need more data? Here are a few suggestions:

  • Click here to see all of our published reports for China.

  • Explore all of our reports for countries across Eastern Asia.

  • Click here to browse our complete library of published reports.

  • If you’d like to receive updates when we publish new reports and content, click here to sign up for our newsletter.