Vice premier stresses importance of census

BEIJING, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang stressed the importance of census Friday as the country started to prepare for the sixth national census next year.

He said population census was a "very important" comprehensive overview of national conditions and power, as it surveyed contents such as population, age, nationality, levels of education, profession and population migration.

"China needs a new census, because our economy has expanded rapidly and the social structure has changed continuously since the last census in 2000," he said at a meeting here.

He said China had a huge population. "Only when we have factual population statistics, can we take scientific measures in safeguarding security in energy and resources, food, arable land, economic and social stability," he said.