China’s population grew modestly over the past decade, but nearly half its major cities lost residents due to a variety of factors, data from the latest national census showed. Of China’s 330-plus prefecture-level cities, 149 – or 44.7% – had smaller populations last year than in 2010. The cities with shrinking populations were scattered across 23 of the 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland, with most of them in northeastern, central and western China. Migration played a major role, said Jiang Quanbao, Demographer in Xian, in Shaanxi province, which saw populations shrink in seven of its 10 major cities. Seeking better-paid jobs or marriage opportunities were major reasons for population declines, along with falling birthrates.
The nationwide trend was most noticeable in the three Northeastern provinces – Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. More than 30 cities in the region saw their populations fall. Heilongjiang’s 13 major cities all recorded contractions, losing nearly 6.5 million people, about 17% of their residents, over the past decade, the census data showed. Only three cities in the Northeast gained residents: Shenyang, Liaoning’s provincial capital, Changchun, the capital of Jilin province, and Dalian, a port city in Liaoning. The region has long battled an exodus of younger people for reasons that include the depletion of natural resources and a relative lack of opportunities. That has created challenges, ranging from shrinking pension funds to slowing economic growth. The Northeast was a base for heavy industry in the 1950s. The coal-producing province of Shanxi faces the same problem. It lost almost 800,000 residents between 2010 and 2020, with contractions recorded in nine of its 11 major cities. Its coal mining industry has been impacted by the authorities’ embrace of a greener development path.
Population loss has also been seen in the central provinces of Hubei, Hunan and Henan, and the eastern province of Anhui. Ten of Anhui’s 16 major cities have seen their populations decrease, along with eight cities in Hunan and another eight in Hubei. The latest census data showed about 376 million, or one in every four people in the Chinese mainland, were classified as migrants living outside their hometowns in prefecture-level cities or regions, up 70% from a decade ago. Ding Changfa, Associate Professor of Economics at Xiamen University in Fujian province, said the capital cities of the central provinces had absorbed large numbers of migrants due to their roles as regional economic hubs.
For example, Changsha, capital of Hunan, had gained more than 3 million people to reach a population of more than 10 million. Xi’an, Shaanxi’s provincial capital, gained almost 3.9 million people. Jiang Quanbao, Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University, said provincial capitals appeal to migrants because they offer more opportunities and have introduced policies designed to attract talent, the China Daily reports.
