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| The 25 Fastest Growing Cities of China: 1950 - 2005 | ||||
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Source: Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social
Affairs of the United Nations Secretariat, World Population Prospects:
The 2002 Revision and World Urbanization Prospects: The 2003 Revision,
http://esa.un.org/unup, 04 April 2006; 2:57:42 AM. |
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Between 1950 and 2005 the coastal city of Shanghai had the biggest increase in population: 7.3 million. This increase was higher than the growth of Tianjin (7.0 million) and Beijing (6.9 million) or Wuhan (4.8 million). Between 1950 and 2005, cities, such as Chongqing, Shenyang, Chengdu, Xian, Guangzhou and Changchun had population increases in the range of 2.3 to 3.3 million. |
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| In relative terms, as expected, smaller cities had some really spectacular increases in population. For instance the city of Neijiang (in .. province) increased more than 10-fold - from 137 thousand to 1.586 million in habitants. The city of Nanchong (in ... province) also increased almost 10-fold - from 109 thousand to 1.243 million. And Urumqi - the far western capital of Xinjiang province - increased from 253 thousand inhabitants to more than 1.9 million - a 6-fold increase in population within 55 years. | ||||
| These numbers clearly indicate that China is in the middle of a massive urbanization process. As in any other developed country, China's population will be predominantly urban at the end of this transition period. The "romantic" idea of China as being a "peasant society" is rapidly fading away. According to the estimates of the UN Population Division, China already has the largest urban populations in the world (536 million), larger then the urban populations of India (315 million), all of Europe, even including Russia (531 million) and the United States of America (242 million). |
