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CHINA
source: www.ehproject.org/PDF/Activity_
Reports/AR109ANEUrbHlthweb.pdf
www.nhb.org.in/Publications/hNews
_jun2003_Articles.htm
csde.washington.edu/downloads/
downloader/dl.pl?id=01-13.pdf.
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With 1.265 billion persons as of November 1, 2000, the People’s Republic of China accounts for approximately 21% of the human population… - according to official statistics, China’s urban population was about 72 million in 1952; in 1997 it was estimated at 370 million. China’s urban population has more than quadrupled since the early 1950s, whereas its rural population has only increased from 503 to 866 million. Despite this enormous increase in urban population, China has essentially remained a rural society. More than two-thirds (70%) of the population is still classified as rural;
- in the early 1990s, the government created buffer cities - settlements with populations of less than 500,000 - that were meant to prevent the big cities from swelling to unmanageable proportions. More than 200 buffer cities were established between 1990 and 1997. Then, alarmed by satellite photos that showed that China was losing more than 500,000 hectares of arable land a year to housing, roads and factories, the government stopped encouraging the expansion of towns;
- in recent years, the urbanisation trend has picked up, fuelled by projections that increasing the population of China's largest cities would boost consumer spending while efficiently preserving land and other resources. The urbanisation rate has already risen to 42% at present according to international experiences and statistics, and China is definitely in the acceleration period of urbanisation. In the last years, the urbanisation growth rate has been kept at nearly 2% on average annually;
- in 2000, China had 464 million urban residents. Between 1999 and 2000, census estimates approximately 60 million more urban residents. These figures (although controversial) confirm a growth in the urban trend, and represent a profound social revolution that, should it continue, will transform China into a mainly urban society in less than 2 decades;
- Chinese experts predict that the number of people living in Chinese cities is expected to reach 1.12 billion by 2050, accounting for 70% of the country's total population. More than 600 million Chinese people will shift from rural areas to urban districts in the next 50 years; (1)
- at present, the Chinese mainland has more than 660 cities and 19,000 towns. By 2050, 80% of towns will have grown into small or medium-sized cities. By then, China will have 50 ultra-large cities, each with an urban population of more than 2 million, 150 big cities, 500 medium-sized cities and 1,500 small cities; (1)
- urbanisation in the 1990s was closely tied to economic growth. The urban percentage grew the most on the East coast. The only rapidly urbanising province in the interior was the newly created Chongqing municipality. The slowest urban growth occurred in the Northeast, already quite urbanised and saddled with many failing state owned enterprises;
- urban China, where the one child policy has been successfully enforced for two decades, has a relatively low proportion under age 15, and a larger proportion age 15-64. In the 2000 census 75.3% of urban Chinese were in the 15 to 64 age range, implying a dependency ratio that is extraordinarily low;
- in China, where urban polities bear no responsibility for rural to urban areas migrants, the ‘floating population’ has emerged as a large and perduring urban underclass, variously estimated at between 100 and 200 million persons;
- the big, rapid economic change that China has undergone has left many people unable to cope, and you see large dislocations both in the urban and in the rural areas. Temporary migrants can cause large swings in population size. In some cities, they are estimated to count for between 1/5 and 1/3 of the total population - a phenomenon known as circular migration;
- very often they do not have a place to live in and are forced to occupy illegal settlements. In China, the ‘mong liu’ (‘blindly migrating people’) are closest to Western concept of homeless people. Another term, ‘nong min gong’, refers specifically to peasants who come to the city to work. Both terms refer to a rural-to-urban migration without government approval. Because they come to the city without registering, they are not counted in the national census.
(1) [ www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/wto/t36952.htm]
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