| Steel production | from 1.3 million to 23 million tons |
| Coal production | from 66 million to 448 million tons |
| Electric power generation | from 7 million to 133 billion kilowatt-hours |
| Fertilizer production | from 0.2 million to 28 million tons |
| Cement production | from 3 million to 49 million tons |
| Industrial workers | from 3 million to 50 million |
| Scientists and technicians | from 50,000 to 5 million |
| “Barefoot doctors” posted to countryside | 1 million |
| Annual growth rate of industrial output | 11 percent |
| Annual growth rate of agricultural output | 2.3 percent |
| Total population | from 542 million to 1 billion |
| Average population growth rate per year | 2 percent |
| Per capita consumption of rural dwellers | from 62 to 124 yuan annually |
| Per capita consumption of urban dwellers | from 148 to 324 yuan |
| Overall life expectancy | from 35 to 65 years |
| Counterrevolutionaries killed (1949–1952) | between 1 million and 3 million |
| People labeled “rightists” in 1957 | 550,000 |
| Deaths from famine during Great Leap Forward | 20 million or more |
| Deaths during Cultural Revolution | 500,000 |
| Officials sent down to rural labor camps | 3 million or more during Cultural Revolution |
| Urban youth sent down to countryside | 17 million (1967–1976) |