Di Chengfeng
Beijing Normal University
2013.6.14-15
Budapest
Urbanization
 …… the physical growth of urban areas as a result of rural
migration and even suburban concentration into cities
 The urbanization of population
 increase of urban population
 proportion of urban population in total population
 The urbanization of land
 expansion of urban land
Overview of China’s Urbanization
Rate of Urbanization in China (1949-2010)
(%)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
 Before economic reform(1949-1979) : Crawling under 20%
 After economic reform(since 1980): Running by small steps, up to 49.70% in
2010 and 51.3% in 2011
Year
Overview of China’s Urbanization
Overview of China’s Urbanization
Process of China’s Urbanization
 1950-1978: Counter-urbanization
 Major factors
 Development strategy of industrialization with priority of
heavy-industry with limited resources under system of
planned economy
 Institutional arrangements on Chinese urban-rural
segregation including the household registration (Hukou)
system
 Political arrangement of sending urban youth to
countryside to do farm works
Process of China’s Urbanization
 1979-2002: Urbanization based on industrialization in rural
area and development of small cities and towns
 Major factors
 Economic reform to market economy
 Release of rural surplus labor
 Policy of giving priority to development of small cities and
towns with development of medium and big cities as
supplement
 Development of rural enterprises
 Emerging of small cities and towns (See the table)
Process of China’s Urbanization
Quantity of small cities and towns in China since 1981
Year
Amount
Year
Amount
1981
2678
1993
15806
1982
2664
1994
16702
1983
2968
1995
17532
1984
7186
1996
18171
1985
9140
1997
18925
1986
10718
1998
19216
1987
11103
1999
19756
1988
11481
2000
20312
1989
11873
2001
20374
1990
12084
2002
20601
1991
12455
2003
20226
1992
14539
2004
19883
2005
19522
Process of China’s Urbanization
 Since 2002: Transforming to urbanization based on
coordinated development of towns and cities of various
scale
 Major factors
 Increased demand for cheap rural labors due to deepening of
economic reform and industrialization
 Loosening of the household registration system in some cities
 Need for scale of economy and market resulting from evolving
of industrialization
Some Problems of China’s Urbanization
 Imbalance between urbanization of land and urbanization
of population
 Imbalance between urbanization of population and
farmers’ citizenization
Imbalance between land and population
urbanization
 Statistics from different sources
 The build-up areas in cities has increased by 7.2%, while the
population in the areas increased only by 4% during 19992007. - The National Development and Reform Commission
 The build-up areas above prefecture level expanded 70.1%
but population absorbed in the areas increased only by 30%
from 2001 to 2007. - China Urban Development Report
2009
 More data - China Statistical Yearbook & China Statistical
Yearbook of Urban Construction
Change of built-up area and population density in Chinese cities
since the 1980s
Year
Build-up area
of city
(km2)
Population in
cities and towns
(million)
urbanization Population density
Rate
in build-up area
(%)
(persons/km2)
1981
7438
199.70
20.12
26849
1985
9386
250.94
23.71
26736
1990
12856
301.91
26.41
23484
1995
19264
351.74
29.04
18259
2000
22439
459.06
36.22
20458
2005
32521
562.12
42.99
17285
2006
33660
577.06
43.90
17144
2007
35470
593.79
44.94
16741
2008
36295
606.67
45.68
16715
Source: China Statistical Yearbook，China Statistical Yearbook of Urban Construction
Imbalance between land and population
urbanization
 Problem implied in the statistics
Low efficiency of urban construction land utilization
 Status of land endowment

Arable land per capita ＜ 0.1 hectare
＜ ½ of the world average
＜ ¼ of the developed countries
 Result of the imbalance of urbanization

Per capita urban land available ＞ 120 m2
＞ 82.4 m2 for developed countries averagely
＞ 83.3 m2 for developing countries averagely
Imbalance between urbanization of population
and rural-urban migrants’ citizenization
 Measuring urban population
 Permanent urban residents (with hukou), and
 Rural population living in cities or towns over 6 months but
without identity of citizenship (urban hukou) – the floating
population
 Gap between urban population and citizens
 300 million of nonresident migrants in cities and towns
 Real rate of urbanization is about 35% in 2010 after deducting
the 300 million (compared with 49.7% of the rate of registered
urban population in 2010)
-- peri-urbanization
Imbalance between urbanization of population
and rural-urban migrants’ citizenization
 Migrant rural workers is the largest challenge to urbanization
 Less access to sufficient housing, health services within social security
and compulsory education for their children because of their
nonresidential identity
 Separation with their family, esp. children
Age of Migrant Rural Worker in 2007
Age
Population in total migrant rural workers
＜30
52.6%
30-40
29.5%
＞40
17.9%
Institutional reasons for the imbalances
 Slow population urbanization resulting mainly from
Household Registration System
 Fast land urbanization resulting mainly from the Land
Supply System
 Land acquisition and land leasing – right to use
 Local government’s tax revenue
Institutional reasons for the imbalances
Land leasing and revenue in China since the 1990s
Year
Area of land
leasing
(hm2)
Revenue of land
leasing
(billion Yuan )
National financial
income
(billion Yuan)
1993
57338
40.53
434.9
Proportion of land
leasing revenue to
financial income
(%)
9.32
1994
49432
35.92
521.8
6.88
2000
161190
62.50
1339.5
4.67
2001
90394
129.59
1637.1
7.92
2002
124230
241.68
1891.4
12.78
2005
165586
218.40
3164.9
6.90
2007
234961
454.14
5132.2
8.85
Source: China Statistical Yearbook, China Statistical Yearbook of Urban Construction
Some conclusions
 Extensive urbanization focusing on expanding urban area
is unsustainable, while intensive urbanization focusing on
improving land utilization is necessary
 Reform of house registration system will be crucial for
effective population urbanization
 Institutional reform of farmland transfer should benefit
farmers with more choice and compensation