where do most chinese live?
China
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 As of 2010 , 94 % of the population over age 15 are literate , compared to only 20 % in 1950 . In 2009 , Chinese students from Shanghai achieved the world 's best results in mathematics , science and literacy , as tested by the Programme for International Student Assessment ( PISA ) , a worldwide evaluation of 15 @-@ year @-@ old school pupils ' scholastic performance . Despite the high results , Chinese education has also faced both native and international criticism for its emphasis on rote memorization and its gap in quality from rural to urban areas . 

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 Chinese immigration to the United States at that time was neither uniform nor widespread . J.R. Tucker , writing for The North American Review in 1884 , stated that the vast majority of the nearly 100 @,@ 000 Chinese immigrants resided within the American West : California , Nevada , Oregon , and the Washington Territory . The U.S. Minister to China , George Seward , had asserted similar numbers in Scribner 's Magazine five years earlier . 

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 China officially recognizes 56 distinct ethnic groups , the largest of which are the Han Chinese , who constitute about 91 @.@ 51 % of the total population . The Han Chinese – the world 's largest single ethnic group – outnumber other ethnic groups in every provincial @-@ level division except Tibet and Xinjiang . Ethnic minorities account for about 8 @.@ 49 % of the population of China , according to the 2010 census . Compared with the 2000 population census , the Han population increased by 66 @,@ 537 @,@ 177 persons , or 5 @.@ 74 % , while the population of the 55 national minorities combined increased by 7 @,@ 362 @,@ 627 persons , or 6 @.@ 92 % . The 2010 census recorded a total of 593 @,@ 832 foreign citizens living in China . The largest such groups were from South Korea ( 120 @,@ 750 ) , the United States ( 71 @,@ 493 ) and Japan ( 66 @,@ 159 ) . 

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 There are as many as 292 living languages in China . The languages most commonly spoken belong to the Sinitic branch of the Sino @-@ Tibetan language family , which contains Mandarin ( spoken natively by 70 % of the population ) , and other Chinese varieties : Wu ( including Shanghainese ) , Yue ( including Cantonese and Taishanese ) , Min ( including Hoochew , Hokkien and Teochew ) , Xiang , Gan , and Hakka . Languages of the Tibeto @-@ Burman branch , including Tibetan , Qiang , Naxi and Yi , are spoken across the Tibetan and Yunnan – Guizhou Plateau . Other ethnic minority languages in southwest China include Zhuang , Thai , Dong and Sui of the Tai @-@ Kadai family , Miao and Yao of the Hmong – Mien family , and Wa of the Austroasiatic family . Across northeastern and northwestern China , minority ethnic groups speak Altaic languages including Manchu , Mongolian and several Turkic languages : Uyghur , Kazakh , Kyrgyz , Salar and Western Yugur . Korean is spoken natively along the border with North Korea . Sarikoli , the language of Tajiks in western Xinjiang , is an Indo @-@ European language . Taiwanese aborigines , including a small population on the mainland , speak Austronesian languages . 

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 A recent phenomenon , the migration of rural Chinese workers began in 1984 when the Regulations of Permanent Residence Registration became less punitive and allowed people to move to find employment . People left rural areas to escape poverty , and females left due to the lack of local opportunities for women . In the cities , women could find new , low @-@ paid factory @-@ based jobs that did not require highly skilled workers . According to national statistics , the ratio of male to female migrant workers averages 2 : 1 , and an estimated 30 @-@ 40 million of the migrant women work in the cities , namely Hong Kong and Shenzhen . 
