China: Capital, Population, Currency and Facts

Key facts

Capital: Beijing
Region: Asia, Eastern Asia
Population: 1,406,585,000 (2025)
Area: 9,596,960 km²
Currency: Chinese yuan (CNY)
Languages: Chinese, Yue Chinese, Wu Chinese, Daur, Uighur
Calling code: +86
Internet domain: .cn, .中国, .中國, .公司, .网络
ISO codes: CN, CHN, 156
Time zone: UTC+6:00 to UTC+8:00
United Nations: Member state
Postal code pattern: ###### (# = digit, @ = letter)

Land and position

China covers about 9,596,960 square kilometres. By area it ranks 5th among the 250 countries and territories on this site. It is a little smaller than United States and a little larger than Brazil. It shares a land border with 16 neighbours: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Hong Kong, India, Kyrgyzstan, North Korea, Kazakhstan, Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, Macau, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Vietnam. Its centre lies at about 35° north, 105° east, in the northern hemisphere.

Neighbours

People

About 1.41 billion people live in China (World Bank, 2025). That makes it the 2nd most populous of the 246 places on this site with a figure, with about 17 percent of the world's people. On average there are 147 people to each square kilometre. About 66 percent of people live in towns and cities (World Bank, 2025). A baby born there can expect to live about 78 years (World Bank, 2024). Languages listed for it: Chinese, Yue Chinese, Wu Chinese, Daur, Uighur, Zhuang. A person from China is called Chinese.

Money and economy

The currency is the Chinese yuan (code CNY, symbol ¥). The World Bank puts the size of its economy (GDP) at about US$ 19.5 trillion (2025), which is about US$ 13,862 for each person (2025).

Time

China spans 2 time zone areas, from UTC+6:00 to UTC+8:00. Clocks stay the same all year: there is no daylight saving time.

Time now in Shanghai: loading

Offsets are for January 2026. See Time Zones for a converter.

Largest cities

City	People
Shanghai	24,874,500
Chongqing	22,000,000
Chengdu	20,937,757
Beijing	18,960,744
Guangzhou	18,676,605
Shenzhen	17,494,398

City figures are from GeoNames and count the city itself, not the wider urban area. They can be some years old, so use them to see the order of size.

More in Eastern Asia

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan. See the whole region.

Figures were collected on 11 November 2026 from the World Bank, GeoNames and the open countries data set. See About and data sources. Borders and names follow those sources and do not express any view on disputed territory.