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For teachers

China by the Numbers for Teachers

The China by the Numbers pages are written to be used in class. Each one has a ranking table, a per-person comparison where it matters, and a note on how the number is measured, because the measurement is often the lesson.

Each page

What each page gives you

  • A ranking table with the source and data year
  • A per-person figure next to the national total, where one exists
  • A plain note on what the number counts and what it leaves out
  • A CSV download of the table
  • Permission to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (credit "PreeChina")

Start here

Three questions to start with

  1. Total or per person? China produces about 46% of the world's pork, but several European countries have more pork per person in their food supply. Which number answers "who eats the most pork"? Pork production by country
  2. Who counts as a city? In the UN's 2025 figures Jakarta overtook Tokyo as the largest city in the world, mostly because the UN changed how it draws city boundaries. What changed, and which method is fairer? Largest cities in the world
  3. Same crop, two numbers. FAO counts China's tea harvest as about 16 million tonnes of fresh leaf. Tea sold in shops is dried leaf, which weighs far less. Why would a report use one figure rather than the other, and what goes wrong when two sources mix them? Tea production by country

On the ground

Taking students to see it

Many of these rankings can be seen on the ground: the skyline of Shenzhen, a working tea garden, the Great Wall and other World Heritage sites. If your school is planning a China trip, the student group tours page shows how PreeChina builds routes around a course, and tours by curriculum lists the learning units designed so far.

CC BY 4.0

How to cite

PreeChina, "<page title>", China by the Numbers, <URL>, checked <date>. Licensed CC BY 4.0. Original data: <source named on the page>.

A full classroom pack

PreeChina puts together a full classroom pack, with worksheets and slides built around these tables, when it works with a school or agency on a tour or a partnership. Tell PreeChina the course and year group.

Contact PreeChina

Reviewed October 2026.