The phenomenon and issues of rural children left behind (RCLB) in China are affecting the flow of human capital between urban and rural areas. This paper clarifies the definition and steps for identifying RCLB, and uses the micro-data of the 2010 and 2020 Population Censuses to analyze relevant characteristics and changing trends over the past ten years. The analysis includes the following aspects: population size of RCLB, their age and sex structure, regional distribution, living arrangements, and educational development. The findings show that the population size of RCLB remained large, and the likelihood of being left-behind was closely related to age and sex. An increasing proportion of RCLB were cared for by grandparents as more mothers migrated between 2010 and 2020. RCLB no longer had any advantage in education opportunity compared with the average level of rural children. Over-age attendance was more noticeable among RCLB than the average level of rural children. We should continue to pay attention to the issue of RCLB and address its root causes.

China has just conducted the 6th national population census,with the enumeration taking place during 1-10 November 2010.Over the last few years,there have been many studies and conferences devoted to the 6th census,the central theme being challenges and suggestions as what the Population and Development Forum discussed a year ago organized by this journal.Today the journal has the forum again on the 6th census,discussing experiences from the conduct of the census.Three papers on different aspects of the census have contributed to the forum.The first paper by Cui Hongyan and Li Rui from National Bureau of Statistics of China examines developments in China’s population censuses over the last six decades,involving improvement in organization and implementation,expansion in census contents and items,upgrade in census techniques,improvement in means of data processing,and implementation of census law according to which the census is conducted.The second paper by Pang Jiangqian from Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics analyzes difficulties in conducting the 6th census in locating census objects as a result of increasing mobility,getting cooperation from residents,and recruiting competent census enumerators.Improved census approaches are discussed in the paper.The third paper by Chen Wei and Yang Shenghui from People’s University of China provides experiences and lessons learned from the 6th census based on their participation in the pilot survey and census preparation and enumeration work.Wang Qian,from National Population and Family Planning Commission of China,is invited to preside the forum,and offers critical comments to the three papers.