What does an urbanization rate of 70% mean?

The urbanization rate of 70% means that urbanization has moved from the first half of farmers moving into cities to the second half of further population gathering in central cities.

The National Bureau of Statistics recently released data showing that at the end of 2021, the urbanization rate of my country’s permanent population was 64.72%, an increase of 0.83 percentage points from the end of 2020. A research report by the Academy of Social Sciences in 2018 proposed that, About 70% of the country's population has actually entered cities and their surrounding areas, and our urbanization rate has reached 70%.

If you consider the age group of the urbanization rate, this trend is even more obvious. The recently published "China Youth in the New Era" announced for the first time the urbanization rate of the youth resident population, pointing out that in 2020 the youth resident population The urbanization rate reached 71.1%, an increase of 15.3 percentage points from ten years ago and 7.2 percentage points higher than the urbanization rate of the overall permanent population.

Although there are differences in data, there should be no doubt that China has entered the tail end of rapid urbanization development. According to the existing experience of developed countries, when the urbanization rate reaches 70%, the rate of urbanization will slow down rapidly. In the future, especially in non-immigration countries like China, which do not have a large increase in external population, this trend will become more obvious.

China's urbanization rate

In 2003, China's total urban population accounted for 17% of the world's total, ranking first in the world. From the perspective of ratio indicators, China's urban population as a proportion of the total population ranks 107th among the 151 countries counted in the "World Development Indicators 2005"; China's secondary and tertiary industry employment ranks 107th among the 32 countries counted in the "International Statistical Yearbook 2005" Ranked last in the country. Comprehensive comparison shows that China's urban population shows duality: China's total urban population ranks first, and its urban population ratio index ranks 70th.

In 2006, the country's urban population was 577.06 million, accounting for 43.9% of the country's total population. The urbanization level increased by 4.8 percentage points compared with 2002, with an average annual increase of 1.2 percentage points. In 2006, the urbanization levels of the eastern, central and western regions were 54.6%, 40.4% and 35.7% respectively. The cities with the highest urbanization levels are Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and Foshan. The urbanization rate of these three cities has reached 100%. The number of cities with urbanization reaching more than 90% has reached 8 cities; the urbanization levels are lower in Guizhou and Tibet, with 27.5% and 28.2% respectively. In 2009, the urbanization rate reached 46.6%, and in 2010 it reached 47.5%.