CAI MENG/CHINA DAILY Editor's Note: The seventh national population census released on Tuesday has attracted wide attention while proving some speculations wrong. Four experts share their views with China Daily's Zhang Xi on how China could better adapt to the population trend. Excerpts follow: Long-term plan needed to increase birth rate The seventh census shows the Chinese mainland has a population of 1.41 billion, with an annual growth rate of 0.53 percent over the past decade, down from 0.57 percent from 2001 to 2010. The number of people aged below 14 was more than 253 million, accounting for 17.95 percent of the total population, up 1.35 percentage points compared with 2010.