Since the reform and opening up, my country’s urbanization rate has increased rapidly. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2024, my country’s urban permanent population will be 943.5 million, an increase of 10.83 million from the end of the previous year; the rural permanent population will be 464.78 million, a decrease of 12.22 million; the proportion of urban population in the national population (urbanization rate) will be 67%, an increase of 0.84 percentage points from the end of the previous year.
In terms of provinces, which places have high urbanization rates?
According to the statistical bulletins and public data released by various places in 2024, the reporter of China Business News found that as of now, 10 provinces have an urbanization rate of more than 70%, one more than the previous year, among which the three municipalities of Shanghai, Beijing and Tianjin exceed 85%, and the urbanization rates of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Jiangsu exceed 75%.
The Statistical Bulletin of Shanghai’s National Economic and Social Development in 2024 did not disclose the urbanization rate data of Shanghai’s permanent population in 2024. According to last year’s data, by the end of 2023, the urbanization rate of Shanghai’s permanent population has reached 89.46%, and has been ranked first among all provinces for many years. At the end of last year, Beijing had a permanent urban population of 19.26 million, accounting for 88.2% of the permanent population. At the end of last year, Tianjin had a permanent urban population of 11.73 million, with an urbanization rate of 86.01%.
Overall, as urban economies, the three municipalities directly under the central government mainly develop secondary and tertiary industries, and the proportion of primary industry and primary population is very small.
The urbanization rate of permanent population in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the three coastal economic provinces, has exceeded 75%. Among them, at the end of last year, Guangdong’s urban permanent population was 97.01 million, accounting for 75.91% of the permanent population (urbanization rate of permanent population). The urbanization rate of permanent population in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is 75.5%.
The urbanization rate of permanent population in Liaoning, Fujian, Chongqing and Inner Mongolia also exceeds 70%, ranking 7 to 10. Among them, the urbanization rate of Inner Mongolia’s permanent population reached 70.7% at the end of 2024, breaking the 70% mark for the first time. So far, 10 provinces have an urbanization rate of more than 70%.
Among the 10 provinces, two are from the central and western regions, namely Chongqing and Inner Mongolia, which are also the regions with earlier industrialization in the central and western regions. Data show that in 2024, the per capita disposable income of residents in Inner Mongolia, Chongqing, Hunan, Hubei, and Anhui ranked in the top five in the central and western regions. These provinces are also regions with high levels of industrialization and urbanization in the central and western regions. In other words, to improve the per capita income level in the central and western regions, it is necessary to improve the level of industrialization and urbanization in the central and western regions.
The urbanization process in the central and western regions was relatively late, and the original urbanization base was relatively low. It has increased rapidly in a certain period of time. In recent years, the urbanization rate in the central and western regions has increased significantly.
The reporter of China Business News found that compared with the end of 2023, at the end of 2024, the urbanization rate of permanent population in 10 provinces increased by more than 1 percentage point, of which 8 were located in the central and western regions, 1 was located in the eastern coastal area, and 1 was located in the northeast region.
At the end of 2024, the urbanization rate of Shanxi’s permanent population was 66.32%, an increase of 1.35 percentage points from the end of the previous year. At the end of 2024, the urbanization rate of Gansu’s permanent population was 56.83%, an increase of 1.34 percentage points from the end of the previous year.
In terms of the total urban population, there are 6 provinces with more than 50 million urban residents, an increase of 2 from the previous year. These 6 provinces are Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Henan, Zhejiang and Sichuan, all of which are populous provinces. Among them, the total urban population in Guangdong reached 97.01 million last year, about 30 million more than the second place, ranking first in the country.
Peng Peng, executive president of the Guangdong Provincial Economic Reform Research Association, analyzed that compared with rural areas, urban per capita income is higher and consumption will be much higher. Guangdong has a large urban population and a high level of per capita consumer expenditure, forming a very large consumer market.
In terms of the number of rural population, there are 10 provinces with more than 20 million people, namely Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, Guangdong, Hebei, Hunan, Anhui, Yunnan, Guangxi and Jiangsu.
Regions with large rural populations are also the focus of the current urbanization rate potential. In July this year, the State Council issued the “Five-Year Action Plan for Deeply Implementing the People-oriented New Urbanization Strategy” (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”). The Action Plan mentioned that the focus is on concentrated areas with large urbanization potential such as central and southern Hebei, northern Anhui, southwestern Shandong, southeastern Henan, southwestern Hunan, western Guangdong, and eastern Sichuan, while taking into account other counties (cities, districts) with low urbanization rates and large populations, accelerating breakthroughs in coordinating the promotion of new industrialization and urbanization, and building a benign interactive pattern of industrial gradient layout, population employment nearby, and coordinated development of large, medium and small cities.
Urbanization is accompanied by population migration. In recent years, although the population is still flowing into the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta on the southeast coast. However, as the level of industrialization and urbanization in the central and western regions continues to improve, especially as scientific and technological innovation has become the basic driving force for development, a number of modern industrial clusters are gathering in strong provincial capitals and central cities in the central and western regions. Industrial development has led to a rapid increase in the number of employees, attracting a large number of talents and population inflows.
In recent years, emerging industries and high-end manufacturing industries have developed rapidly in major central and western cities such as Wuhan, Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi’an, Hefei, Zhengzhou, and Changsha, which have not only attracted more and more local college graduates to stay, but also attracted a large number of talents and population inflows.
Taking Anhui as an example, according to the fifth national economic census bulletin recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics, by the end of 2023, the number of employees in Anhui’s legal entities will reach 17.739 million, an increase of 4.077 million in 5 years compared with the results of the fourth national economic census in 2018, and an increase of 29.8% in 5 years, ranking first in the country.
According to the “Hefei News”, the permanent population of Hefei in 2024 will increase by 149,000 compared with the end of 2023 (9.853 million), and the cumulative increase in the past three years has exceeded 500,000, reaching 537,000. Migrants account for nearly 90% of the population, and the city’s net increase in migrant population is 131,000, accounting for 87.9% of the net increase in permanent population.