Poor and populous Henan will become China’s first province with more than 100 million people later this month, state media said yesterday, giving it a population size similar to the Philippines.
Largely rural Henan, in central China, is the source of many of the migrant workers who have helped transform the nation into the world’s third-largest economy.
Henan’s population jumped from 40 million in the 1950s to about 90 million in the 1990s, and while it would soon hit 100 million, the rise had slowed notably over the past two decades, the China News Service said.
Henan could have been even more crowded without the central government’s one-child policy, introduced three decades ago to curb population growth, the report said. Without the policy, Henan’s population would have an estimated additional 33 million people, it said.
China’s urban population will overtake its rural population for the first time by 2015, with the number of people living in towns and cities set to top 700 million, state media said earlier this month. The country is projected to have 1.39 billion citizens by 2015, up from 1.32 billion at the end of 2008.
The world’s most populous sub-national entity is India’s Uttar Pradesh state, with 166 million people.
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
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CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
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