What is the proportion of college students in China's national population?

According to the statistics of the number of college entrance examination admissions from 1977 to 2017, the total number of college graduates in the past 40 years is 115.182 million. Roughly speaking, half of them are from three-year colleges and the other half are from junior colleges, that is, there are about 57.591 million undergraduates. When calculated based on the total of more than 1.3 billion, college students account for 8.86% of the total population, and undergraduates only account for 4.43%.

Based on this ratio, undergraduates are definitely a scarce resource. But why are undergraduates worthless now?

Change the algorithm. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the total population aged 0-14 in 1997 was 320.93 million. In 1999, colleges and universities began to expand enrollment. These people basically went to college from 2001 to 2015. They are now 21-35 years old, and the total number of college students admitted in these 15 years is 83.7 million.

It is estimated that 26.08% of the population aged 21-35 in China now go to college (undergraduate + junior college) (studying abroad is not included). In other words, there is one college student for every four young people (aged 21-35). If we further distinguish between urban and rural areas, since 2015, the proportion of college graduates in the urban employment population structure has exceeded 50%. Under this ratio, it is not surprising that the talent market is full of college students.

The number of college graduates in China is expected to reach 11.79 million in 2024, which is a record high.

Moreover, colleges are springing up like mushrooms after rain, and the admission threshold is lowering. Coupled with the development of continuing education, there will be more and more people with academic qualifications, and college students have become basic resources from the scarce resources in the past.