erious challenge'". UPI, 31 October 2011. Retrieved 2011-11-09.↑ 5.0 5.1 "World Population Prospects The 2012 Revision: Highlights and Advance Tables" (PDF). The Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations. pp. 51–55. සම්ප්‍රවේශය 11 August 2013.↑ Census figure refers to mainland China, excluding its Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macau. The first one returned to Chinese sovereignty in mid-1997 and the second one did so on December 20, 1999.↑ Estimate refers to Metropolitan France and the four overseas departments (Départements d'outre-mer, DOM) of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion but excludes the overseas department of Mayotte, the overseas collectivities (Collectivités d'outre-mer, COM) of French Polynesia, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon and Wallis and Futuna, and the sui generis collectivity of New Caledonia. The population of metropolitan France alone stood at 63,966,000 on 1 December 2013,