In 2021, around **** million people were estimated to be living in the urban area of Shanghai. Shanghai was the largest city in China in 2021, followed by Beijing, with around **** million inhabitants. The rise of the new first-tier cities The past decades have seen widespread and rapid urbanization and demographic transition in China. While the four first-tier megacities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, are still highly attractive to people and companies due to their strong ability to synergize the competitive economic and social resources, some lower-tier cities are already facing declining populations, especially those in the northeastern region. Below the original four first-tier cities, 15 quickly developing cities are sharing the cake of the moving population with improving business vitality and GDP growth potential. These new first-tier cities are either municipalities directly under the central government, such as Chongqing and Tianjin, or regional central cities and provincial capitals, like Chengdu and Wuhan, or open coastal cities in the economically developed eastern regions. From urbanization to metropolitanization As more and more Chinese people migrate to large cities for better opportunities and quality of life, the ongoing urbanization has further evolved into metropolitanization. Among those metropolitans, Shenzhen's population exceeded **** million in 2020, a nearly ** percent increase from a decade ago, compared to eight percent in the already densely populated Shanghai. However, with people rushing into the big-four cities, the cost of housing, and other living standards, are soaring. As of 2020, the average sales price for residential real estate in Shenzhen exceeded ****** yuan per square meter. As a result, the fast-growing and more cost-effective new first-tier cities would be more appealing in the coming years. Furthermore, Shanghai and Beijing have set plans to control the size of their population to ** and ** million, respectively, before 2035.

It is estimated that more than 8 billion people live on Earth and the population is likely to hit more than 9 billion by 2050. Approximately 55 percent of Earth’s human population currently live in areas classified as urban. That number is expected to grow by 2050 to 68 percent, according to the United Nations (UN).The largest cities in the world include Tōkyō, Japan; New Delhi, India; Shanghai, China; México City, Mexico; and São Paulo, Brazil. Each of these cities classifies as a megacity, a city with more than 10 million people. The UN estimates the world will have 43 megacities by 2030.Most cities' populations are growing as people move in for greater economic, educational, and healthcare opportunities. But not all cities are expanding. Those cities whose populations are declining may be experiencing declining fertility rates (the number of births is lower than the number of deaths), shrinking economies, emigration, or have experienced a natural disaster that resulted in fatalities or forced people to leave the region.This Global Cities map layer contains data published in 2018 by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). It shows urban agglomerations. The UN DESA defines an urban agglomeration as a continuous area where population is classified at urban levels (by the country in which the city resides) regardless of what local government systems manage the area. Since not all places record data the same way, some populations may be calculated using the city population as defined by its boundary and the metropolitan area. If a reliable estimate for the urban agglomeration was unable to be determined, the population of the city or metropolitan area is used.Data Citation: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision. Statistical Papers - United Nations (ser. A), Population and Vital Statistics Report, 2019, https://doi.org/10.18356/b9e995fe-en.

Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 99.637 % in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 99.540 % for 2016. Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 99.382 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 % in 2010 and a record low of 94.548 % in 1974. Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Hong Kong – Table HK.World Bank: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted average;

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Shanghai, China metro area from 1950 to 2025.

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.

Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City data was reported at 7,364,883.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 7,302,843.000 Person for 2016. Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 5,581,213.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7,364,883.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 2,611,539.000 Person in 1960. Hong Kong HK: Population in Largest City 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: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

Hong Kong HK: Population in Urban Agglomerations of More Than 1 Million data was reported at 7,364,883.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 7,302,843.000 Person for 2016. Hong Kong HK: Population in Urban Agglomerations of More Than 1 Million data is updated yearly, averaging 5,581,213.500 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 7,364,883.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 2,611,539.000 Person in 1960. Hong Kong HK: Population in Urban Agglomerations of More Than 1 Million 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: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in urban agglomerations of more than one million is the country's population living in metropolitan areas that in 2018 had a population of more than one million people.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Wuhan, China metro area from 1950 to 2025.

Macau MO: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data was reported at 100.000 % in 2017. This stayed constant from the previous number of 100.000 % for 2016. Macau MO: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data is updated yearly, averaging 100.000 % from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 100.000 % in 2017 and a record low of 100.000 % in 1978. Macau MO: Population in Largest City: as % of Urban Population data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Macau SAR – Table MO.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the percentage of a country's urban population living in that country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; Weighted average;

Weibo, China's popular microblogging platform, boasts a diverse user base across the country. In 2024, third-tier cities led the way with 21 percent of Weibo users, followed closely by new first-tier cities at 20 percent. This distribution highlights the platform's broad appeal beyond just the largest metropolitan areas, reflecting China's rapid urbanization and digital connectivity growth. Launched in 2009, Weibo has evolved into China's leading microblogging site, combining features from X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.

Macau MO: Population in Largest City data was reported at 622,567.000 Person in 2017. This records an increase from the previous number of 612,167.000 Person for 2016. Macau MO: Population in Largest City data is updated yearly, averaging 325,850.000 Person from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 622,567.000 Person in 2017 and a record low of 159,892.000 Person in 1960. Macau MO: Population in Largest City data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Macau SAR – Table MO.World Bank.WDI: Population and Urbanization Statistics. Population in largest city is the urban population living in the country's largest metropolitan area.; ; United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects.; ;

The intercity daily flow of long stay international visitors (LSIV) reflects the economic globalisation and regional integration of a region. We made the first attempt to use mobile phone data to identify international visitors who stayed longer than one month in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region in 2019, analysed the spatial patterns of LSIV, and revealed the impact factors associated with the daily intercity flow of LSIV. We discussed spatial dependence using multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR), and performed cluster analysis to understand the combination effects. The results show that enterprises have the largest effect, AQI and administrative hierarchy have relatively low effects, and income, imports and exports do not have any significant effect. Overall, the economically developed eastern regions of the YRD region are more attractive for daily travel by LSIV, with the Shanghai metropolitan area being the most attractive. Our findings provide new insights into the relationship between the intercity daily flow of LSIV and the urban economy and society in the delta region to help suggest planning recommendations to enhance the globalisation development strategy and provide a better environment for international visitors in the delta region.

As of January 2024, Guangzhou had the largest metropolitan population in the Asia-Pacific region, with approximately 70.1 million inhabitants. Tokyo had the second-largest metropolitan population of around 41 million inhabitants. There were a total of 28 megacities with a population of over 10 million inhabitants in the Asia-Pacific region as of January 2024.

The Subway, Light Rail and Cable Car Transport industry is still in the stages of development in China. Most rail transit systems were established over 20 years ago. However, rail transit systems have since expanded due to rapid urbanization and to alleviate increased traffic congestion in cities. Many rail transit systems are under construction or in the planning stages in cities throughout China, and this trend is expected to increase. Industry revenue is expected to increase at an annualized 5.5% over the five years through 2025, to total $7.2 billion. This trend includes anticipated increased growth of 10.3% in the current year. Industry employment numbers are expected to grow at an annualized 3.6% over the five years through 2025 to total 171,015 people, with total wages amounting to an estimated $1.2 billion. Industry firms are dependent on government subsidies and profit margins are near zero. China currently has more than 100 cities with a population larger than one million, which is the general threshold to establish a rail transit system. As China's overall economy continues to grow rapidly, rail transit systems will be constructed in an increasing number of cities. By the end of 2024, 54 cities had established rail transit systems with a total length of more than 10,900 kilometers and subway systems more than 94,77.6 kilometers in length. Industry revenue is forecast to grow at an annualized 7.2% over the five years through 2030, to total $10.2 billion.

Data on immigrant status and period of immigration by place of birth, citizenship, age and gender for the population in private households in Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and parts.

Delhi was the largest city in terms of number of inhabitants in India in 2023.The capital city was estimated to house nearly 33 million people, with Mumbai ranking second that year. India's population estimate was 1.4 billion, ahead of China that same year.

Abstract

This research was carried out in China between December 2011 and February 2013. Data was collected from 2,700 privately-owned and 148 state-owned firms.

The objective of Enterprise Surveys is to obtain feedback from businesses on the state of the private sector as well as to help in building a panel of enterprise data that will make it possible to track changes in the business environment over time, thus allowing, for example, impact assessments of reforms. Through interviews with firms in the manufacturing and services sectors, the survey assesses the constraints to private sector growth and creates statistically significant business environment indicators that are comparable across countries.

Usually Enterprise Surveys focus only on private companies, but in China, a special sample of fully state-owned establishments was included as this is an important part of the economy. Data on 148 state-owned enterprises is provided separately from the data of 2,700 private sector firms. To maintain comparability of the China Enterprise Surveys to surveys conducted in other countries, only the dataset of privately sector firms should be used.

Geographic coverage

Twenty-five metro areas: Beijing (municipalities), Chengdu City, Dalian City, Dongguan City, Foshan City, Guangzhou City, Hangzhou City, Hefei City, Jinan City, Luoyang City, Nanjing City, Nantong City, Ningbo City, Qingdao City, Shanghai (municipalities), Shenyang City, Shenzhen City, Shijiazhuang City, Suzhou City, Tangshan City, Wenzhou City, Wuhan City, Wuxi City, Yantai City, Zhengzhou City.

Analysis unit

The primary sampling unit of the study is an establishment.The establishment is a physical location where business is carried out and where industrial operations take place or services are provided. A firm may be composed of one or more establishments. For example, a brewery may have several bottling plants and several establishments for distribution. For the purposes of this survey an establishment must make its own financial decisions and have its own financial statements separate from those of the firm. An establishment must also have its own management and control over its payroll.

Universe

The whole population, or universe of the study, is the non-agricultural economy of firms with at least 5 employees and positive amounts of private ownership. The non-agricultural economy comprises: all manufacturing sectors according to the group classification of ISIC Revision 3.1: (group D), construction sector (group F), services sector (groups G and H), and transport, storage, and communications sector (group I). Note that this definition excludes the following sectors: financial intermediation (group J), real estate and renting activities (group K, except sub-sector 72, IT, which was added to the population under study), and all public or utilities sectors.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for China ES was selected using stratified random sampling. Three levels of stratification were used in this country: industry, establishment size, and region.

Industry stratification was designed in the following way: the universe was stratified into 11 manufacturing industries and 7 services industries as defined in the sampling manual. Each manufacturing industry had a target of 150 interviews. Sample sizes were inflated by about 20% to account for potential non-response cases when requesting sensitive financial data and also because of likely attrition in future surveys that would affect the construction of a panel. Note that 100% government owned firms are categorized independently of their industrial classification. The 148 surveyed state-owned enterprises were categorized as a separate sector group to preserve the representativeness of other sector groupings for the private economy.

Size stratification was defined following the standardized definition for the rollout: small (5 to 19 employees), medium (20 to 99 employees), and large (more than 99 employees). For stratification purposes, the number of employees was defined on the basis of reported permanent full-time workers. This seems to be an appropriate definition of the labor force since seasonal/casual/part-time employment is not a common practice, except in the sectors of construction and agriculture.

Regional stratification was defined in twenty-five metro areas: Beijing (municipalities), Chengdu City, Dalian City, Dongguan City, Foshan City, Guangzhou City, Hangzhou City, Hefei City, Jinan City, Luoyang City, Nanjing City, Nantong City, Ningbo City, Qingdao City, Shanghai (municipalities), Shenyang City, Shenzhen City, Shijiazhuang City, Suzhou City, Tangshan City, Wenzhou City, Wuhan City, Wuxi City, Yantai City, Zhengzhou City.

The sample frame was obtained by SunFaith from SinoTrust.

The enumerated establishments were then used as the frame for the selection of a sample with the aim of obtaining interviews at 3,000 establishments with five or more employees. The quality of the frame was assessed at the onset of the project through calls to a random subset of firms and local contractor knowledge. The sample frame was not immune from the typical problems found in establishment surveys: positive rates of non-eligibility, repetition, non-existent units, etc.

Given the impact that non-eligible units included in the sample universe may have on the results, adjustments are needed when computing the appropriate weights for individual observations. The percentage of confirmed non-eligible units as a proportion of the total number of sampled establishments contacted for the survey was 31% (6,485 out of 20,616 establishments).

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The following survey instruments are available: - Services Questionnaire, - Manufacturing Questionnaire, - Screener Questionnaire.

The Services Questionnaire is administered to the establishments in the services sector. The Manufacturing Questionnaire is built upon the Services Questionnaire and adds specific questions relevant to manufacturing.

The standard Enterprise Survey topics include firm characteristics, gender participation, access to finance, annual sales, costs of inputs/labor, workforce composition, bribery, licensing, infrastructure, trade, crime, competition, capacity utilization, land and permits, taxation, informality, business-government relations, innovation and technology, and performance measures. Over 90% of the questions objectively ascertain characteristics of a country’s business environment. The remaining questions assess the survey respondents’ opinions on what are the obstacles to firm growth and performance.

Cleaning operations

Data entry and quality controls are implemented by the contractor and data is delivered to the World Bank in batches (typically 10%, 50% and 100%). These data deliveries are checked for logical consistency, out of range values, skip patterns, and duplicate entries. Problems are flagged by the World Bank and corrected by the implementing contractor through data checks, callbacks, and revisiting establishments.

Response rate

The number of contacted establishments per realized interview was 7.24. This number is the result of two factors: explicit refusals to participate in the survey, as reflected by the rate of rejection (which includes rejections of the screener and the main survey) and the quality of the sample frame, as represented by the presence of ineligible units. The number of rejections per contact was 0.55.

Item non-response was addressed by two strategies: a- For sensitive questions that may generate negative reactions from the respondent, such as corruption or tax evasion, enumerators were instructed to collect the refusal to respond as a different option from don’t know. b- Establishments with incomplete information were re-contacted in order to complete this information, whenever necessary.

Survey non-response was addressed by maximizing efforts to contact establishments that were initially selected for interview. Attempts were made to contact the establishment for interview at different times/days of the week before a replacement establishment (with similar strata characteristics) was suggested for interview. Survey non-response did occur but substitutions were made in order to potentially achieve strata-specific goals.

In 2022, roughly 43 percent of Bhutan's population resided in urban areas. Comparatively, approximately 19 percent of Sri Lanka's population lived in urban areas in 2022.

Urbanization in the APAC region

The Asia-Pacific region is currently experiencing a significant trend towards urbanization, with a growing number of individuals relocating from rural areas to urban centers in pursuit of improved economic prospects. From 2015 to 2020, there was an increase in the urban population throughout Asia. The projection for the region indicates a continuation of urbanization, although at a decelerated rate. As of 2021, a third of the entire population of India resided in urban areas. The data shows a notable upsurge in urbanization in India over the past ten years, indicating a shift of the populace from rural to urban centers in search of employment opportunities and livelihood.

 Population of megacities in APAC 

The APAC region is home to some of the world's most populous megacities. According to recent data, in 2023, the annual metropolitan population growth rate of China surpassed that of other megacities in the APAC region. In contrast to other cities, the three megacities in Japan, namely Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya, exhibited the lowest annual population growth rates. That same year, the APAC region was home to 28 megacities, more than ten of which were in China. India, Japan, and Pakistan also had more than once megacity each as of January 2023.

Average clustering results for the 4 types of cities.

Statistical data of all counties and cities in the Yangtze River Delta in 2019.