In 2024, about 943.5 million people lived in urban regions in China and 464.8 million in rural. That year, the country had a total population of approximately 1.41 billion people. As of 2024, China was the second most populous country in the world. Urbanization in China Urbanization refers to the process by which people move from rural to urban areas and how a society adapts to the population shift. It is usually seen as a driving force in economic growth, accompanied by industrialization, modernization and the spread of education. Urbanization levels tend to be higher in industrial countries, whereas the degree of urbanization in developing countries remains relatively low. According to World Bank, a mere 19.4 percent of the Chinese population had been living in urban areas in 1980. Since then, China’s urban population has skyrocketed. By 2024, about 67 percent of the Chinese population lived in urban areas. Regional urbanization rates In the last decades, urbanization has progressed greatly in every region of China. Even in most of the more remote Chinese provinces, the urbanization rate surpassed 50 percent in recent years. However, the most urbanized areas are still to be found in the coastal eastern and southern regions of China. The population of Shanghai, the largest city in China and the world’s seventh largest city ranged at around 24 million people in 2023. China’s urban areas are characterized by a developing middle class. Per capita disposable income of Chinese urban households has more than doubled between 2010 and 2020. The emerging middle class is expected to become a significant driver for the continuing growth of the Chinese economy.

In 2024, approximately 67 percent of the total population in China lived in cities. The urbanization rate has increased steadily in China over the last decades. Degree of urbanization in China Urbanization is generally defined as a process of people migrating from rural to urban areas, during which towns and cities are formed and increase in size. Even though urbanization is not exclusively a modern phenomenon, industrialization and modernization did accelerate its progress. As shown in the statistic at hand, the degree of urbanization of China, the world's second-largest economy, rose from 36 percent in 2000 to around 51 percent in 2011. That year, the urban population surpassed the number of rural residents for the first time in the country's history.The urbanization rate varies greatly in different parts of China. While urbanization is lesser advanced in western or central China, in most coastal regions in eastern China more than two-thirds of the population lives already in cities. Among the ten largest Chinese cities in 2021, six were located in coastal regions in East and South China. Urbanization in international comparison Brazil and Russia, two other BRIC countries, display a much higher degree of urbanization than China. On the other hand, in India, the country with the worlds’ largest population, a mere 36.3 percent of the population lived in urban regions as of 2023. Similar to other parts of the world, the progress of urbanization in China is closely linked to modernization. From 2000 to 2024, the contribution of agriculture to the gross domestic product in China shrank from 14.7 percent to 6.8 percent. Even more evident was the decrease of workforce in agriculture.

In 2023, the ratio of urban to rural population varied greatly in different provinces of China. While Guangdong province had an urban population of around 95.8 million and a rural population of 31.2 million, Tibet had an urban population of only 1.4 million, but a rural population of around 2.2 million.

Natural habitats transformed to city or countryside with human activities of different intensities have reshaped regional and global landscapes, especially in those rapid developed low- and mid-income countries, like China. China’s rapid shift in urban and rural expansion, which are greater than and equal to, and below county-level’s artificial land expansion, and reduction in farmland and ecological land are important for determining future urban and rural development under the conservation and protection of farmland and ecosystems; however, such an understanding is still inadequate. Here, we show that both urban and rural expansions have encroached on farmland and ecological land since 1980; rural areas, with 1.33 km2 × 105 km2 in 2020, remain larger than urban areas, with 0.97 km2 × 105 km2 in 2020. However, urban areas (1857.5 km2/year) increased faster than rural areas (695.0 km2/year) during 1980–2020, rural expansion primarily occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, and urban expansion primarily occurred after 2000 especially 2000s. Farmland is the major land cover that has been occupied by urban and rural expansion for 53.7 and 39.1 thousand km2, especially in East China’s densely populated areas. And, both farmland and ecological land were primarily encroached during 2000s. Our results demonstrate imbalanced urban and rural expansion and encroachment on farmland and ecological land; thus, both forms of encroachment should be optimized at the regional scale based on the socioeconomic needs and natural conditions, and diverse policies can be designed to support local sustainable development.

In 2024, the average annual per capita disposable income of rural households in China was approximately ****** yuan, roughly ** percent of the income of urban households. Although living standards in China’s rural areas have improved significantly over the past 20 years, the income gap between rural and urban households is still large. Income increase of China’s households From 2000 to 2020, disposable income per capita in China increased by around *** percent. The fast-growing economy has inevitably led to the rapid income increase. Furthermore, inflation has been maintained at a lower rate in recent years compared to other countries. While the number of millionaires in China has increased, many of its population are still living in humble conditions. Consequently, the significant wealth gap between China’s rich and poor has become a social problem across the country. However, in recent years rural areas have been catching up and disposable income has been growing faster than in the cities. This development is also reflected in the Gini coefficient for China, which has decreased since 2008. Urbanization in China The urban population in China surpassed its rural population for the first time in 2011. In fact, the share of the population residing in urban areas is continuing to increase. This is not surprising considering remote, rural areas are among the poorest areas in China. Currently, poverty alleviation has been prioritized by the Chinese government. The measures that the government has taken are related to relocation and job placement. With the transformation and expansion of cities to accommodate the influx of city dwellers, neighboring rural areas are required for the development of infrastructure. Accordingly, land acquisition by the government has resulted in monetary gain by some rural households.

In 2023, there were **** physicians and **** registered nurses serving every 1,000 inhabitants in Chinese urban areas, while the density of healthcare personnel was significantly lower in the countryside. Although China has more than a million healthcare facilities nationwide, structural inequalities between health services in urban and rural areas remain a long-term challenge.

Hong Kong HK: Rural Land Area data was reported at 231.171 sq km in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 231.171 sq km for 2000. Hong Kong HK: Rural Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 231.171 sq km from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 231.171 sq km in 2010 and a record low of 231.171 sq km in 2010. Hong Kong HK: Rural Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Hong Kong SAR – Table HK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Rural land area in square kilometers, derived from urban extent grids which distinguish urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Sum;

Leading with the principle of ‘people-oriented urbanization,’ the adaptation of rural migrants in urban China has attracted increasing concerns from policy-makers and scholars. Today, China has proceeded to a new stage of urbanization. Many rural migrants prefer moving to cities near their home villages rather than to large cities, reflecting the changes in migration patterns and expectations of rural migrants. Although migrant adaptation has been repeatedly investigated in academia, researchers tend to address the topic in one host setting, while migrant adaptation in diverse urban settings has rarely been compared. This paper seeks to fill this research gap via a survey conducted in two cities with different urban settings in Jiangsu. The rural migrant adaptation experiences in the two cities are systematically compared. Our statistical results show that economic structure and living costs, on the one hand, and local regulations and socio-cultural environments, on the other hand, determine rural migrant adaptation experiences in different urban settings. Despite abundant employment opportunities in more-developed cities, the high living costs, working pressure, and strict institutional schemes significantly hamper rural migrant adaptation. In less-developed cities, limited employment opportunities and conservative socio-cultural environments hinder rural migrants from adapting in host societies. Our findings suggest that the governments of different cities need to tailor strategies to assist rural migrants in adapting in urban communities.

Until 2007, the share of the global population living in urban areas was always smaller than the rural population, but in 2021, the world's level of urbanization has risen to around 56 percent, and by 2050, it is estimated that two thirds of the world will live in urban areas. Urbanization on such a large scale is a relatively new phenomenon, and has a strong correlation with the industrial maturity of a society. For most of pre-industrial times, fewer than five percent of the total population lived in urban centers, which were generally trading and administrative centers. The main reason for this was the agricultural demands of the time, where subsistence farming was the primary method of food production for the general population. Compared to Japan and China, a larger share of Western Europe lived in urban centers in the 16th century, due to higher levels of trade along the Mediterranean and between northern states, but around 94 percent of the population still lived in a rural setting. Effect of industrialization With the onset of the first industrial revolution in the 19th century, the mechanization of agriculture and development of manufacturing industries saw a shift in labor demands in Western Europe. People began migrating to cities on a large scale, and migration to the U.S. also increased due to industrialization in the northeastern states. Urban populations then became more prosperous, although mortality rates were initially higher due to the more rapid spread of disease and poor sanitation infrastructure. This mortality also disproportionately affected children and more recent arrivals. Global trends Waves of industrialization in Europe saw further urbanization throughout the 1800s, and roughly a third of the population had urbanized by the end of the 19th century. Globally, it would take until the 1960s before one third of the population had urbanized, and it was not until the late 1990s where China's urbanization rate had reached this level. However, China's urbanization rate has grown rapidly since the 1980s, and is now around 80 percent of the EU's level, whereas it was closer to 50 percent just two decades previously. Japan's urbanization rate was comparable to Europe's for most of the 20th century, but increased further throughout the 2010s; today it has one of the highest rates among more developed nations, although this has presented some challenges for Japanese society.

The dataset underpins a study on "Social Capital and the Effectiveness of Land Use Policies: Evidence from Rural China," drawing from the 17 Provinces Rural Land Survey by Renmin University of China. This research navigates the intricacies of land use policy effectiveness in rural China, underpinned by the significant reforms initiated by the 1986 Constitution allowing transactions of land use rights. These reforms enabled local governments to lease land use rights to the private sector, significantly contributing to fiscal revenues and fostering economic development and urban expansion at an impressive rate. However, this rapid transformation introduced several challenges, including legal, social, and environmental issues centered around land use policies. The study delves into the consequences of these reforms, such as the technical efficiency impacts on livestock grazing in Tibet versus the degradation of ecosystem services in Inner Mongolia, and the negative effects of full-scale land relocation practices on organic fertilizer usage. The complexity of redeveloping brownfields in rural areas and the crucial role of rural land tenure in investment, productivity, and participation in the land rental market are also highlighted. The effectiveness of land use policies has thus become a focal point for scholarly investigation, particularly regarding the impact on rural residents, who are critical stakeholders in the reform process. Central to this exploration is the concept of social capital, defined as the network of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling society to function effectively. Social capital, encompassing elements such as trust, social networks, and norms, plays a pivotal role in encouraging environmental restoration and climate change adaptation efforts. This has been observed not only in China but globally, suggesting a move towards behavioral land use policies that leverage social capital for cost-effective and sustainable outcomes. These policies aim to influence behaviors through intrinsic motivations rather than through monetary incentives or legal mandates, which often entail significant public expenditure and administrative costs. The data seeks to advance the discourse on land use policy by proposing a comprehensive analytical framework that includes various forms of social capital and measures policy outcomes both in the short and long term. Employing an innovative empirical strategy, the study addresses endogeneity issues and aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the relationship between social capital and land use policy outcomes. The findings suggest that social capital has a contextually dependent effect on policy effectiveness, varying across different policy objectives and stages of policy evaluation. This research underscores the importance of incorporating multiple dimensions of social capital into policy analysis and design, offering insights that could guide sustainable urbanization and rural development efforts.Although China has almost eliminated urban poverty, the total number of Chinese citizens in poverty remains at 82 million, most of which are rural residents. The development of rural finance is essential to preventing the country from undergoing further polarization because of the significant potential of such development to facilitate resource interflows between rural and urban markets and to support sustainable development in the agricultural sector. However, rural finance is the weakest point in China's financial systems. Rural households are more constrained than their urban counterparts in terms of financial product availability, consumer protection, and asset accumulation. The development of the rural financial system faces resistance from both the demand and the supply sides. The proposed project addresses this challenge by investigating the applications of a proven behavioural approach, namely, Libertarian Paternalism, in the development of rural financial systems in China. This approach promotes choice architectures to nudge people into optimal decisions without interfering with the freedom of choice. It has been rigorously tested and warmly received in the UK public policy domain. This approach also fits the political and cultural background in China, in which the central government needs to maintain a firm control over financial systems as the general public increasingly demands more freedom. Existing behavioural studies have been heavily reliant on laboratory experiments. Although the use of field studies has been increasing, empirical evidence from the developing world is limited. Meanwhile, the applications of behavioural insights in rural economic development in China remains an uncharted territory. Rural finance studies on the household level are limited; evidence on the role of psychological and social factors in rural households' financial decisions is scarce. The proposed project will bridge this gap in the literature. The overarching research question of this project is whether and how behavioural insights can be used to help rural residents in China make sound financial decisions, which will ultimately contribute to the sustainable economic development in China. The research will be conducted through field experiments in rural China. By relying on field evidences, the project team will develop policy tools and checklists for policy makers to help rural households make sound financial decisions. Two types of tools will be developed for policy makers, namely, "push" tools that aim to achieve short-term policy compliance among rural households so that they can break out of the persistent poverty cycle and "pull" tools that can reduce fraud, error, and debt among rural households to prevent them from falling back into poverty. Finally, the project team will also use the research activities and findings as vehicles to engage and educate rural residents, local governments, regulators, and financial institutions. Standard and good practice will be proposed to interested parties for the designs of good behavioural interventions; ethical guidelines will be provided to encourage good practice. This important step ensures that the findings of this project will benefit academia and practice, with long-lasting, positive impacts. The findings will benefit researchers in behavioural finance and economics, rural economics, development economics, political sciences, and psychology. The findings of and the engagement in this project will help policy makers to develop cost-effective behavioural change policies. Rural households will benefit by being nudged into sound financial decisions and healthy financial habits. The project will provide insights on how to leverage behavioural insights to overcome persistent poverty in the developing world. Therefore, the research will be of interest to communities in China and internationally. We collected data by including a special module in the 17 Provinces Rural Land Survey administrated by Renmin University of China. This survey is a joint research project between Renmin University of China and the Rural Development Institute (RDI) in the US conducted since 1999. A total of seven rounds of surveys have been conducted since then, and we obtained our data from the latest round completed in 2016.

China's progress in poverty reduction over the last 25 years is enviable. One cannot fail to be impressed by what this vast nation of 1.3 billion people has achieved in so little time. In terms of a wide range of indicators, the progress has been remarkable. Poverty in terms of income and consumption has been dramatically reduced. Progress has also been substantial in terms of human development indicators. Most of the millennium development goals have either already been achieved or the country is well on the way to achieving them. As a result of this progress, the country is now at a very different stage of development than it was at the dawn of the economic reforms at the beginning of the 1980s. China's poverty reduction performance has been even more striking. Between 1981 and 2004, the fraction of the population consuming below this poverty line fell from 65 percent to 10 percent, and the absolute number of poor fell from 652 million to 135 million, a decline of over half a billion people. The most rapid declines in poverty, in both the poverty rate and the number of poor, occurred during the 6th, 8th, and 10th plans. During the 7th plan period the number of poor actually rose, while in the 9th plan period, the poverty rate declined only marginally. But the pace of poverty reduction resumed between 2001 and 2004 and there are indications that during the first couple of years of the 11th plan poverty has continued to decline rapidly. The most recent official estimate of rural poverty in China for 2007 puts the number of poor at 14.79 million, or less than 2 percent of the rural population. While there is no official urban poverty line, estimates by others have found poverty levels in urban areas to be negligible using an urban poverty line that is comparable to the official poverty line for rural areas. These estimates thus suggest that only about 1 percent of China's population is currently in extreme poverty. Notwithstanding this tremendous success, the central thesis of this report is that the task of poverty reduction in many ways continues and in some respects has become more demanding.

Macau MO: Rural Land Area data was reported at 11.181 sq km in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 11.181 sq km for 2000. Macau MO: Rural Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 11.181 sq km from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.181 sq km in 2010 and a record low of 11.181 sq km in 2010. Macau MO: Rural Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Macau – Table MO.World Bank: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Rural land area in square kilometers, derived from urban extent grids which distinguish urban and rural areas based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Sum;

Objective: China is experiencing the world's largest urbanization. There are two primary types of urbanization in China: rural-to-urban migration and in situ urbanization, represented by Zhejiang Shangyu (SY) and Jiangsu Nanjing (NJ), respectively. Our aim is to compare changes in the prevalence of metabolic disease between these two types of urbanization in China.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study derived from the SPECT-China 2014 study. This study includes subjects and metabolic parameters from SY and NJ. Furthermore, biochemical and anthropometric indexes were taken into consideration and compared between the areas of interest.Results: The prevalence rates of diabetes, prediabetes and healthy subjects were 6.5, 17.9, and 75.7% in SY and 16.0, 31.0, and 53.0% in NJ, respectively. Industrial and agricultural jobs accounted for 77.9% and 32.0% of employment in SY and NJ, respectively. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was higher in SY than in NJ; however, HbA1c was lower in SY than in NJ. There was a significant difference in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and healthy subjects between SY and NJ (P < 0.05). Significant differences were also found with respect to body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) between these two locations (P < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis revealed that the prevalence of prediabetes, diabetes, overweight, obesity and dyslipidemia was higher in NJ than in SY.Conclusions:In situ urbanization has notably changed occupational distribution. The prevalence rates of diabetes, obesity, and NAFLD were increased in rapidly urbanized areas. Thus, more attention should be paid to rapidly urbanizing areas to reduce the prevalence of metabolic disease.

Introduction: Disparities in the incidence, mortality, and survival of cancer types between urban and rural areas in China reflect the effects of different risk factor exposure, education, and different medical availability. We aimed to characterize the disparities in the incidence, mortality, and survivals of cancer types between urban and rural areas in Shanghai, China, 2002-2015.Materials and Methods: The incidence and mortality were standardized by Segi's world standard population. Trends in the incidence and mortality of cancers were compared using annual percent change. The 5-year observed and relative survivals were calculated with life table and Ederer II methods.Results: Age-standardized incidences and mortalities were 212.55/105 and 109.45/105 in urban areas and 210.14/105 and 103.99/105 in rural areas, respectively. Female breast cancer and colorectal cancer occurred more frequently in urban than in rural areas, quite in contrast to liver cancer and cervical cancer. Cancers of lung and bronchus, liver, stomach, and colon and rectum were the leading causes of cancer death in both areas. Age-standardized incidence of female breast cancer and colorectal cancer in urban areas increased while gastric cancer and liver cancer decreased in both areas. Age-standardized mortalities of cancers of breast, esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum, liver, and lung and bronchus decreased in both areas. For all cancers combined, the 5-year observed and relative survivals of cancer patients were higher in urban than in rural areas. The 5-year observed and relative survivals of cancers of liver, pancreas, stomach, brain and central nervous system (CNS), and prostate were higher in urban than in rural areas. The 5-year observed and relative survivals of cervical cancer were higher in rural than in urban areas.Conclusions: Factors promoting female breast cancer and colorectal cancer in urban areas and liver cancer and cervical cancer in rural areas should be specifically intervened in cancer prophylaxis. Improved medical services can greatly prolong the survival of major cancers in rural areas.

Since the reform and opening up, hundreds of millions of rural migrants have been moving into the city to engage in non-agricultural employment due to the growing gap between urban and rural areas. After more than 40 years of migration between urban and rural areas, the migration pattern of rural migrants has gradually changed from "moving alone" into "moving with family members". Family-oriented migration, therefore has become the main mode of population migration in China, leading to significant structural changes regarding their living strategies and urban integration process in destination cities. The transfer of a large number of rural labor force to cities can effectively alleviate the contradiction of "more people and less land" in rural China, can promote land circulation and promote large-scale farming activities. However, in reality migrant workers face various personal and institutional obstacles during their integration into the cities. For instance, they are more often low-income social groups and have to bear the cost life in cities. Also, inequality regarding urban welfare systems makes it difficult for their family members to gain accessibility to equal educational, housing, social and medical welfares. These facts also affect their decision making on farmland transfer, even the majority of them no longer engage in farming activities. Therefore, under the background of family-oriented mobility, it is of great significance to explore the influence of migrant workers' urban integration level on their farmland transfer behavior, if further increase on farmland transfer rate in China is needed.Based on the push and pull theory, farmer's rationality hypothesis and new migration economic theory, this paper summarizes the relevant literature research results and construct a conceptual framework to explain influence mechanism of rural migrants’ urban integration level on their farmland transfer behavior under the background of family-oriented migration. From the empirical analysis, combined with the survey of 2017 Chinese rural-urban population flow (RUMiC) in 15 cities and 1033 samples data, the research conducted the following studies. First, using principal component analysis (pca) method. The research measured rural migrant family members’ urban integration level by decomposing it from the economic social and psychological dimension. Second, the Logit econometric model is constructed to empirically test the impact of rural migrants family members urban integration level and its related three dimension (economic, social and psychological) on their farmland transfer behavior. It further compared the influential differences of the three dimensions on the behavior. The results show that the urban integration level of the family members has a significant positive impact on their farmland transfer behavior. Specifically, both the economic and psychological integration level of rural migrants family members have a significant impact on the behavior of farmland transfer, while that of the social integration is not significant. In addition, the economic integration level of rural migrant family members has a greater impact on the decision-making of their farmland transfer than the social integration level and psychological integration level. Based on the aforementioned results, this research suggested to strengthen related institutional and socioeconomic supports for the integration of rural migrant workers and their family members and to reduce their dependence on farm land and related farming activities, which would help to promote their urban integration level. To make them to settle down in destination cities and to increase the productivity of farming activities.

BackgroundIn 2016, the Chinese government introduced an integration reform of the health insurance system with the aim to enhance equity in healthcare coverage and reduce disparities between urban and rural sectors. The gradual introduction of the policy integrating urban and rural medical insurance in pilot cities provides an opportunity to evaluate the policy impact. This study attempts to assess the policy impact of urban–rural health insurance integration on the chronic poverty of rural residents and to analyze the mechanisms.MethodBased on the four waves of data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) conducted in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018, we employed a staggered difference-in-differences (staggered DID) model to assess the impact of integrating urban–rural health insurance on poverty vulnerability among rural inhabitants and a mediation model to analyze the mechanism channel of the policy impact.Results(1) Baseline regression analysis revealed that the urban–rural health insurance integration significantly reduced the poverty vulnerability of rural residents by 6.32% (p < 0.01). The one health insurance system with one unified scheme of contributions and benefits package (OSOS, 6.27%, p < 0.01) is more effective than the transitional one health insurance system with multiple schemes (OSMS, 3.25%, p < 0.01). (2) The heterogeneity analysis results showed that the urban–rural health insurance integration had a more significant impact on vulnerable groups with relatively poor health (7.84%, p < 0.1) than those with fairly good health (6.07%, p < 0.01), and it also significantly reduced the poverty vulnerability of the group with chronic diseases by 9.59% (p < 0.01). The integration policy can significantly reduce the poverty vulnerability of the low consumption and low medical expenditure groups by 8.6% (p < 0.01) and 7.64% (p < 0.01), respectively, compared to their counterparts. (3) The mechanism analysis results showed that the urban–rural health insurance integration can partially enhance labor supply (14.23%, p < 0.01) and physical examinations (6.28%, p < 0.01). The indirect effects of labor supply and physical examination in reducing poverty vulnerability are 0.14%, 0.13% respectively.ConclusionThe urban–rural health insurance integration policy significantly reduced poverty vulnerability, and the OSOS is more effective than the OSMS. The urban–rural health insurance integration policy can significantly reduce poverty vulnerability for low consumption and poor health groups. Labor supply and physical examination are indirect channels of the impact. Both channels potentially increase rural household income and expectations of investment in human health capital to achieve the policy objective of eliminating chronic poverty.

Background: Substantial evidence indicated that absolute income is directly associated with health. Few studies have, however, examined if relative income may be equally associated with health. This study aimed to investigate the association between absolute income/relative deprivation (RD) and self-rated health (SRH). We also investigated whether the urban-rural difference was existing in these associations.Methods: Using cross-sectional data of 7,070 participants in the Shandong Family Health Service Survey of older people, this study applied binary logistic model and semi-parametric model to estimate the effect of absolute income and relative deprivation on SRH of older people. The Kakwani Index was used as a measure of relative deprivation at the individual level.Results: Absolute income has a significant positive effect on the SRH among both urban and rural older people. When considered RD as a variable, both absolute income and RD have negative significant effects on SRH among all older people. In addition, the negative effect of RD on rural elderly is more pronounced than that of urban older populations. Semi-parametric regression results show that there was a complex non-linear relationship between income and SRH. Psychological distress substantially attenuated the association between relative deprivation and SRH.Conclusions: Relative deprivation is negatively associated with self-rated health in both urban and rural older people after controlling the absolute income. RD may partly explain the association between income inequality and worse health status. Compared with the urban elderly, the effect of income-based relative deprivation on SRH was more pronounced among the rural elderly, and more care should be given to the lower income and rural older populations.

In 2023, the urbanization rate in different provinces of China varied between 89.5 percent in Shanghai municipality and 38.9 percent in Tibet. The national average urbanization rate reached around 66.2 percent in 2023. Urbanization and economic development During China’s rapid economic development, the share of people living in cities increased from only 19.4 percent in 1980 to nearly 64 percent in 2020. Urbanization rates are now coming closer to those in developed countries. However, the degree of urbanization still varies significantly between different regions in China. This correlates generally with the level of economic development across different regions in China. In eastern Chinese regions with high personal income levels and high per capita GDP, more inhabitants are living in cities than in the countryside. Influence of geography Another reason for different urbanization rates lies in the huge geographic differences of regions in China. Basically, those regions with a low population density often also display lower urbanization rates, because their inhabitants live more scattered across the land area. These differences will most probably remain despite further economic progress.

Hong Kong HK: Urban Land Area data was reported at 901.543 sq km in 2010. This stayed constant from the previous number of 901.543 sq km for 2000. Hong Kong HK: Urban Land Area data is updated yearly, averaging 901.543 sq km from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2010, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 901.543 sq km in 2010 and a record low of 901.543 sq km in 2010. Hong Kong HK: Urban Land Area data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Hong Kong SAR – Table HK.World Bank.WDI: Land Use, Protected Areas and National Wealth. Urban land area in square kilometers, based on a combination of population counts (persons), settlement points, and the presence of Nighttime Lights. Areas are defined as urban where contiguous lighted cells from the Nighttime Lights or approximated urban extents based on buffered settlement points for which the total population is greater than 5,000 persons.; ; Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)/Columbia University. 2013. Urban-Rural Population and Land Area Estimates Version 2. Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/set/lecz-urban-rural-population-land-area-estimates-v2.; Sum;

This paper estimates the effects of the send-down movement during the Cultural Revolution---when about 16 million urban youth were mandated to resettle in the countryside---on rural education. Using a county-level dataset compiled from local gazetteers and population censuses, we show that greater exposure to the sent-down youths significantly increased rural children's educational achievement. This positive effect diminished after the urban youth left the countryside in the late 1970s but never disappeared. Rural children who interacted with the sent-down youths were also more likely to pursue more-skilled occupations, marry later, and have smaller families than those who did not.