Population growth rate: 13.1‰

Ethnicity:

Qinghai is inhabited by 55 ethnic groups, and the population of minority ethnic groups has reached 2.35 million, or 45.5 percent of the province’s total. Besides the Han, China’s majority, there are the Tibetans, accounting for 21.89 percent of the province’s total population; the Huis, accounting for 15.89 percent; the Tus accounting for 3.85 percent of the province’s total; the Salars accounting for 1.85 percent; and the Mongolians, accounting for 1.71 percent. The Salar and Tu ethnic groups are unique to Qinghai.

Literacy (by the end of 2000):

Primary-school graduates: 1.6 million

Junior middle school graduates: 1.12 million

High school graduates: 540,464

University and college graduates: 170,929

Compared with 1990, the numbers of persons receiving education of various levels among each 10,000 people have increased: college: from 149 to 300; high school: from 828 to 1,043; junior middle school: from 1,776 to 2,660; and primary school: from 2,649 to 3,094.

Total population of age 15 and over who are illiterate or semi-illiterate: 934,283

Illiterate rate: 18.03 percent (1990: 27.7 percent)