China

China is an East Asian country with the largest population in the world (1.4 billion as of July 2014) and is also the fourth-largest in terms of land area (9.6 million square kilometers, or 3.7 million square miles, slightly smaller than the United States). Just over half (54.4 percent) of the population lives in urban areas, with a rate of urbanization of 3.0 percent annually. The capital and largest urban area is Beijing, with a population of 19.5 million. China is classified as an upper-middle-income country by the World Bank, with a per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of U.S. $12,900 in 2014.