This paper reviews the development of promotion and education of population knowledge in mainland China in recent decades, and dicusses both opportunities and challenges  brought by the new situation, new requirements and the changes of peoples needs. Chinas promotion and education system on population development has five merits: strong executive and mobilizing ability, strong coordination and cooperation ability, prominent advantages in publicity position and brand building, adequate talents and equipment, and frequent promotion of authentic population knowledge.There are also challenges, such as unclear objectives, positioning and contents of promotion and education, a lack of investiment in talents, and insufficient motivation. In the new era, the population development knowledge promotion and education in China should target on reaching social consensus, creating favorable environments, disseminating scientific knowledge, serving peoples health and promoting population development.Work contents should mainly focus on strengthening theoretical research, expanding policy publicity and guidance, developing population health and increasing international cooperation.Work strategies include system construction, resource integration, talent building, platform consolidation, innovative development and targeted publicity.

The overall level of health literacy ( HL) in China in 2013 stood at 9．48%，contrasting the rural level of 6．92%with theurban level of 13．80%． The level of HL in Eastern China was 12．81%，while it was 6．93%in West China and 7．10% in Central China Region．The level of HL for female was 9．73%， higher than the male level of 9．23%．In addition，the HL rates of health knowledge and concept，health skills，and health life-style and behaviors was 20．42%，12．47%and 10．62% respectively．The HL rates of chronic diseases prevention，infectious diseases prevention，basic medical care，safety and first aid，scientific healthconcept，and health information was respectively 11．59%，17．12%， 8. 30%，43．53%，32. 12% and 18．46%．The results suggest that the level of health literacy of Chinese urban and rural residents is low，but still differs substantially across different areas and sub-populations．