Numbers of the Week 7.4867 yuan The Chinese currency yuan to U.S. dollar exchange rate broke to 7.4867 yuan against the U.S. dollar on October 25, the highest since the country has partially allowed its currency to float. 56% China's rural population shrank to 56 percent of the national total at the end of 2006, down 8 percentage points from what it stood at in 2001, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. China recorded a total population of 1.3 billion and the rural population has been shrinking each year due to the country's urbanization efforts.