(Economic Observation) Chengdu is promoted to a super-large city, and China’s cities with tens of millions of population may continue to increase
China News Service, Beijing, September 26, report title: Chengdu is promoted as a megacity, and China’s cities with tens of millions of people may continue to increase
China News Agency reporter Pang Wuji
The National Bureau of Statistics of China recently published the seventh national census of the population of very large and very large cities (a total of 21) in the “Seeking Truth” magazine.
According to the official city scale classification standard previously released, cities with urban permanent residents of more than 10 million are called megacities. Cities with urban permanent residents above 5 million and below 10 million are megacities.
According to the seventh national census data and the above classification criteria, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, there are 7 megacities in China: Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Tianjin. In addition, there are 14 megacities including Wuhan, Dongguan, Xi’an and Hangzhou.
Chengdu promoted to a mega city
Compared with the data from the “2019 Urban Construction Statistical Yearbook” previously released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the western central city Chengdu has been added to the list of China’s megacities in 2020.
Statistics show that in 2020, Chengdu has a permanent population of 13.34 million, ranking sixth among Chinese cities, surpassing Tianjin.
The rapid population growth means an increase in the attractiveness of the city. Chengdu is one of the two major “net celebrity” cities in western China. Although the economic strength is not the strongest, the history of ancient Shu, the attractiveness of cute pandas, food and leisure culture still make many people eager for it.
In the “City of Opportunity 2021” report jointly released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and China Development Research Foundation, Chengdu ranked seventh; in the 2020 report, Chengdu ranked fifth, second only to the four first-tier cities.
Data map: Shenzhen, Guangdong.
Shenzhen ranks up
As a forward in reform, Shenzhen has not slackened its effort in “grabbing people”.
According to the 2019 statistical yearbook data, Shenzhen’s urban population is 13.4388 million, ranking fifth; but in 2020, Shenzhen’s urban population has reached 17.44 million, surpassing Guangzhou and Chongqing, ranking third, second only to Shanghai and Beijing.
Of course, there may be impacts due to different statistical calibers, but Shenzhen, as a pioneering demonstration zone of socialism with Chinese characteristics, has shown strong innovation and development vitality in recent years.
Previously, in the “National Innovative Cities Innovation Capability Monitoring Report 2020” and “National Innovative Cities Innovation Capability Evaluation Report 2020” respectively published by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the China Institute of Science and Technology Information, Shenzhen’s innovation capabilities ranked first among the national innovative cities. .
Innovation and vitality drive the prosperity of the industry, increase job opportunities, and increase income, thereby increasing the attractiveness of talents, which is the source of motivation for urban development.
In addition to population growth, Shenzhen has the “youngest” population structure among China’s 21 super and mega cities. The proportion of the population over 60 in Shenzhen is only 5.33%, which is much lower than 23.38% in Shanghai. Dongguan, also a city in the Pearl River Delta, is also relatively “young”, with a population of 5.47% over 60.
Zou Linhua, the leader of the housing big data project team of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Institute of Financial Strategy, told a reporter from China News Agency that these two cities are immigrant cities, and it is not surprising that the proportion of young people is relatively high. Cities with more young people will also have higher innovation and spending power, and local governments will have relatively less pressure on pension expenditures. This is a positive factor for the future development of cities.
Very large and megacities may become bigger and more
Compared with the data in 2019, the total number of super and mega cities in China has expanded from 16 to 21. Six cities including Chengdu, Foshan, Changsha, Harbin, Kunming, and Dalian have achieved “promotions” in scale.
Yu Jiantuo, deputy secretary-general of the China Development Research Foundation, told reporters from China News Agency that the simplest reason is that there are too many people. Behind the large number of people is economic activity, which in turn will promote population gathering.
Experts believe that more cities may grow into mega or even mega cities in the future. In 2020, the urban populations of Wuhan, Dongguan, and Xi’an will each exceed 9 million, which is not far from the threshold of a megacity of 10 million. Especially in Wuhan, the population size of the urban area is only about 50,000 from the “super large”; on the other hand, In addition to some first-tier cities that control population and scale, super-large and mega-cities may also become larger.
Zou Linhua believes that in the future, there will be continued population inflows in mega and mega cities. In terms of the rate of population inflow, the South will be faster than the North, but the northern cities will maintain a net population inflow in addition to a few net outflow cities.
Experts believe that in the future, China may form more megacities with tens of millions of people. These megacities will further promote and converge into larger metropolitan areas and become an important source of economic growth. (over)
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