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China is the most populous country in the world, with 1.28453 billion people at the end of 2002, one-fifth of the world's total. This figure does not include the Chinese living in the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and Taiwan Province. Moreover, the population density is high - with 134 people per sq km - and unevenly distributed. Along the densely populated coastal areas in the east, there are more than 400 people per sq km; in the central areas, over 200; and in the sparsely populated plateaus in the west there are less than 10 people per sq km.   When the PRC was founded in 1949, China had a population of 541.67 million and the population grew rapidly, reaching 806.71 million in 1969. Since the 1970s, China had implemented a policy of family planning to control population growth and thus the birth rate began to decrease. By 2002, the annual rate of population growth had decreased to 12.86 per thousand. In line with the requirements of the Outline of National Economic and Social Development during the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005), adopted at the Fourth Session of the Ninth NPC in March 2001, the goal is for the growth of population not to exceed 9 per thousand and the population as of 2005 to be controlled to less than 1.33 billion.