This information is currently unavailable elsewhere, making this book a specialized but essential purchase for all academic and special libraries with user populations interested in any aspect of China. The latest edition in , is an informative yearbook reflecting the economic and social development of the People's Republic of China. The 1989 yearbook contains national and provincial data in social and economic fields for the year 1988, as well as major time series of national figures from 1949-1988. An explanatory notes section, which gives brief descriptions of concepts and definitions of data, their scope and coverage, methods of data collection and calculation, and their historical changes, follows the table of contents. The yearbook is a revised and improved English language edition of the official compiled by the State Statistical Bureau of the People's Republic of China (SSB). The English Language Editorial Board was responsible for the translation and annotation of this volume. The English Language Editorial Board is composed of representatives of the China Statistical Information and Consultancy Service Center, and affiliate of the SSB, and the China Statistics Archives, a research center at the University of Illinois at Chicago. This is the seventh volume in a series of statistical annuals. The volumes so far published are , and .