Urban Migration of

China
Al, Bhanu, Ma, Pedro
 China’s 1,436,288,188

based on United Nations projections

Population
As a whole, China has an estimated
population density of 375 people per

2019
square mile.

http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/china-population/
 RURAL LIFE in China URBAN LIFE in China
POPULATION- 43% of Total Population POPULATION- 59.15% of Total Population

AVERAGE INCOME- approx. 14,617 yuan AVERAGE INCOME- approx. 39,250.8 yuan
(around 2076 usd) about 1/3 of urban income (around 5575.76 usd) about 3 times rural income

LIVING CONDITIONS- Freshwater Problem, LIVING CONDITIONS- There are problems

Electricity problems still exists in some rural related to urbanization such as air pollution.
Areas.
Some places have slums

China’s Overal HDI (Human development index is around 0.752 which puts it
under High human development, but there are lots of differences between people
living in rural areas vs. urban areas
Reasons for Rural to Urban Migration in China

Quality of Life- life expectancy is higher in cities than in rural areas.

-34% of rural children under one year of age die compared to only 14% in the cities
-14% of children in rural areas are malnourished compared to only 3% in cities
- annual household income in the rural areas is almost half that of the cities
- ownership of cars, televisions, computers and white goods (for example, washing machines,
refrigerators, clothes dryers) is much less in the rural areas
- illiteracy is much higher in the countryside
-few rural people are able to be educated beyond high school and those who look to a
-university education for their children are desperate to move to cities
Job Opportunity- Most of the rural areas are limited to only farming and agriculture and
very fewer career opportunities. Many youngsters move to bigger cities for Career opportunities and
growth.

Education- Youngsters move to Big cities for their Education because most of the educational
institutes and Universities being located in the Big cities
Family Reunification-Most families slowly move to cities; it usually starts with a
member of the family, then the rest of the family follows, Families are regarded as very important in
Chinese culture and society
A Closer Look
 RURAL CHINA

Photo by Liu Chaochao/For China Daily

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201812/ Traditional Rural Villagers
29/WS5c276725a310d91214051c26.html https://techwireasia.com/2019/07/chi
na-goes-big-on-iot-with-a-constell
ation-of-72-satellites/

Traditional countryside village in Lishui,

China - 12/2017 by Lishuilynn
https://bitterwinter.org/closing-the-door-
how-rural-youth-are-denied-educational-
rights-in-china/
 URBAN CHINA

Guangzhou, China: People on street in

Beijing Lu main shopping street,
Guangzhou, China
A night view of the Canton Tower in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on July 30, 2019. [Photo/VCG] https://www.123rf.com/photo_101460379_
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201908/14/WS5d5360eda310cf3e355659d6.html guangzhou-china-march-27-2018-people-
on-street-beijing-road-with-signs-and-a
dvertisements-in-the-gua.html
 URBAN VILLAGES

Central Village
GUANGZHOU
2017

Xian Village - GUANGZHOU 2017

All photos on this slide from

Gangxia Store Owner and Kid
https://u.osu.edu/mclc/2017/05/30/the-fall-of-guangdongs-urban-villages/
Effect of internal Migration in China
The effect of internal migration are air pollution and water pollution.
● Inter-provincial migration increases pollution in China.
● Average migration contributes 7–12.4% wastewater discharge.
● Average migration contributes 3.2–7% SO2 emissions.
● Average migration contributes 0.9–5.5% aggregate waste disposed.

chemical oxygen demand (COD) increases 0.27–0.58%, sulphur dioxide (SO2)

increases 0.08–0.25% and aggregate waste disposed (WST) increases
0.04–0.26%. Non-linear threshold panel model results suggest that for every
additional 10,000 interprovincial migrants, COD increases 0.2–0.5%, SO2
increases 0.10–0.20% and WST increases 3.1–4.2%.
 URBANIZATION

Within the last decade China’s

urban population increased by
nearly 13%

Graph by Shu Han, last update 11/22/2019

https://www.statista.com/statistics/270162/urbanization-in-china/