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Opinion | China’s ambitious urbanisation efforts draw to a close for most mainland provinces and cities
- The flow of domestic migrants is moving in the direction of the Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta and a handful of local economic hubs
- It shows how urbanisation in the great majority of Chinese cities and towns is probably over
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Over the past few weeks, most local governments across China published residents’ data for 2023 that revealed new trends in domestic migrant flows.
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As of Monday, 29 of the mainland’s 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions – except northeastern Heilongjiang province and Tibet – had reported such data, which showed a decline in population size at two-thirds of these local administrations.
While the National Bureau of Statistics already reported a 2.08 million decrease in the nation’s population last year, the residents’ data released by local government authorities indicated that the impact of such a decline was unevenly distributed.
The overall pace of urbanisation across the country also accelerated. The mainland’s urban population rose by 12 million last year, nearly double the 6.5 million increase recorded in 2022. Still, urbanisation in various local administrations appeared to have ceased.
03:23
China posts record-low birth rate despite government push for babies
China posts record-low birth rate despite government push for babies
When Beijing ended the country’s draconian zero-Covid-19 policy, many migrant workers returned to the major cities to seek jobs not available in rural areas
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