Goldstein UrbanizationChina198287 1990

Urbanization in China, 1982-87: Effects of Migration and Reclassification
Author(s): Sidney Goldstein

Source: Population and Development Review , Dec., 1990, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Dec., 1990), pp.
673-701
Published by: Population Council
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1972962
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Urbanization in China, 1982-87:
Effects of Migration
and Reclassification
SIDNEY GOLDSTEIN
NEITHER URBANIZATION NOR BIG CITIES are as new to China as they are to
many other developing countries (United Nations, 1980: 5; Chandler and
Fox, 1974); nor are the problems of development and modernization (Leung
and Ginsburg, 1980). Nonetheless, the modernization process initiated by
the People's Republic after 1949 has had a unique impact on the nation's
urban structure and on the level of urbanization. China has had to confront-
on a massive scale-rapid population growth, substantial increases in the
size of its urban and rural populations, and imbalances in geographic dis-
tribution and city growth rates.
In China, as in many other developing countries, differences of opinion
have emerged about urbanization's role in the development process and the
extent to which migration to urban places should be controlled. These dif-
ferences are reflected in policies adopted by the political leadership. Since
1949, urbanization policies in China have sometimes been animated by the
belief that expansion of the modern sector requires spatial polarization to
obtain the economies of scale needed to ensure successful development (see
Chiu, 1980). At other times, the dominant belief was that polarization was
inconsistent with long-run regional and national development goals. Chinese
policymakers feared that large-scale movement from rural areas and smaller
urban locations to the big cities might exacerbate the problems of these cities
in providing jobs, food, and adequate infrastructure to their residents, while
entailing a major loss of human potential in rural areas and smaller urban
locations (Chan, 1988).
In the late 1970s, the introduction of rural reforms gave peasants a
large degree of control over their own activities. Since then the development
of urban areas, industrialization, and shifts of large numbers of peasants into
nonagricultural activities located in small cities, towns, and rural places have
POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 16, NO. 4 (DECEMBER 1990) 673

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674 URBANIZATION IN CHINA
been key components of China's drive to modernization (Tan, 1986). Because

policymakers considered too-rapid city growth and too large a city population
detrimental to a city's social, environmental, and economic benefits (Kirkby,
1985), they have been intent on simultaneously controlling big-city growth
(Dong, 1989). Large cities were considered to have limited capacities to absorb
the 200 million or more surplus laborers anticipated in rural areas by the
end of the twentieth century (Banister and Taylor, 1989; Wang, Liu, and
Wang, 1989).
Small cities and towns, on the other hand, were seen by Chinese
policymakers as well-suited to further these policy goals and to absorbing
surplus labor. Small urban places serve as political, economic, cultural, ed-
ucational, health, and service centers for their rural hinterlands. They are
also viewed as bridges, fostering interaction between larger cities and rural
areas, facilitating market flows, and thereby benefiting economic develop-
ment in both urban and rural places. Moreover, because designated towns
(towns officially accorded urban status) have been much more open than
cities to migration, development of towns was seen as a mechanism whereby
many peasants could become nonagricultural workers without overburden-
ing city infrastructures or unduly disrupting rural areas (People's Daily, 1984;
see also S. Goldstein and A. Goldstein, 1985).
Consistent with these goals, China's urban distribution policy stipulated
strict control over the growth of big cities, rational development of medium
cities, and encouragement of the growth of small cities and towns (Kwok,
1987). As a corollary of this policy, China's migration policy has been to
strictly limit migration to big cities; carefully control movement to medium
cities; allow freer movement to small cities and towns; and encourage mi-
gration from larger to smaller places (Ma Xia, 1989). The policy is enforced
through the household registration system and through access to state-con-
trolled jobs, housing, and rationed consumer goods.
Despite strictures on urban growth and on migration to cities, statistics
for China show a sharp increase in the level of urbanization in the late 1980s,
a massive increase in the number of cities and towns and in the size of the
population living in them, and large flows of population from rural to urban
places. How is this possible? Several developments help explain these striking
deviations from what Chinese policy would lead us to expect:
(1) While China has tried to control city growth, Chinese planners
have also recognized the important role that large cities can play in overall
development (Kwok, 1989). Big cities have been given leadership roles in
the development of smaller urban places and rural hinterlands; and the four
Special Economic Zones (SEZs), 14 coastal cities, and a series of river delta
areas have been designated as special centers of economic development.
While the controls on migration to big cities remain in effect, the expansion
of manufacturing, commercial, and technological activities in these areas, as

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SIDNEY GOLDSTEIN 675
well as the growing demand for services, may create a demand for more
manpower than is currently available from the resident population. More
migration to cities may result.
(2) The administrative/statistical criteria for qualifying as a city or
town have changed. In part, this is in response to the eagerness of officials
in rural towns and villages to have their localities promoted to cities or to
designated urban towns in order to reap the benefits of greater autonomy
and financial power (ESCAP, 1990); urban designation brings with it the
power to levy certain taxes and to control funds for development made
available by the state. It is also possibly a response to the large proportion
of villagers desiring to live in urban places (Zhu and Wang, 1985). In con-
sequence, many localities have been added to the city and town rosters,
through annexation to existing urban places or through reclassification,
greatly expanding the number of such localities, the number of persons living
in urban places, and the number of urban residents who are engaged in
agricultural activities.
(3) Under China's registration system, two types of migrants can be
identified (S. Goldstein and A. Goldstein, 1985). Permanent inmigrants are
persons who have received official permission to change their registration
from place of origin to place of destination. Temporary migrants are persons
who have not changed their place of registration, even though they are living
elsewhere for periods extending from a few days to several years or more.
Their "nonresident" status allows them to live in cities or towns even though
official policy restricts inmigration (Solinger, 1985). Their temporary status
also makes it easier for the government to require them to return to the
countryside if urban conditions can no longer support them. The increasing
demand in the cities in the 1 980s for construction workers and for domestics
and other service providers has attracted millions of temporary migrants,'
often referred to as the "floating population."
As a combined effect of the larger development process in China and
of the administrative/statistical reclassification of rural places as urban, the
incorporation in urban places of millions of persons engaged in agriculture
or with permanent residence in rural areas has led to the "ruralization" of
cities. This "ruralization" is not a change in the characteristics of the pop-
ulation already resident in urban places before reclassification, but rather an
artifact of the reclassification and of legal restrictions placed on permanent
migration, which lead to large-scale temporary movement of peasants and
other rural residents. The process has the net effect of changing the aggregate
character and socioeconomic composition of the population classified as
urban. As a result, the meaning of "urban" in China is now far different
from the generally accepted meaning of that term, and use of official urban
and migration statistics to measure level of and changes in urbanization can
be seriously misleading.

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This article addresses a number of issues related to urbanization in

China, with a focus on changes between 1982 and 1987. The first of these
years is the date of China's third modern census; the second is the date of
a National Survey described below. These two sources represent the richest
stores of information available to date concerning urbanization and internal
migration flows for the country as a whole. How have the changes-both
"real" and administrative/statistical-between the 1982 census and 1987 in
the number and size of cities and towns affected the sociodemographic com-
position of the urban population? Have the population compositions of cities
and towns shifted toward more urban or more rural characteristics? How
effective has policy been in controlling the flow of migration as judged by
the volume, direction, and composition of the various migration streams?
Do the available data indicate whether migration or reclassification has the
greater impact on the composition of the city, town, and village populations?
Is the redistribution of population through migration producing massive
urbanization concentrated in metropolises or leading to more widespread
urbanization that favors small and intermediate urban places?
None of these questions can be answered definitively with the available
information. The two data sets just referred to, and some supplementary
sources allow, however, some evaluation of changes in China's urban struc-
ture. They also permit assessment of the differential composition of migration
streams and comparison of these streams both with the populations at des-
tination and with streams that would have been intended according to the
guidelines specified by China's policy on internal migration. The analysis
may thus suggest the extent to which inconsistencies exist between reality
and policy intent, and reveal the degree to which relations between popu-
lation redistribution and development conveyed by the official data on ur-
banization and migration represent a statistical artifact rather than "real"
phenomena.
Before turning to the issues, brief attention must be given to definitions
and data sources.
Defining urban places and the

urban population
Since the establishment of the People's Republic, considerable confusion has

characterized reports on the size of China's urban population, in part because
varying definitions of urban place and urban population have been used at
any given time and in part because the definitions have changed over time.
China has relied not only on criteria related to population size in a given
locality or on the percentage of individuals engaged in nonagricultural ac-
tivity. The definition has also been affected by a uniquely Chinese perspective
on the notion of "urban," based largely on a combination of where people

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live and whether the state or the commune is responsible for providing for
their grain needs.
Between 1953 and 1984, the criteria employed in defining urban places
and the urban population changed several times. (For extensive reviews of
the changing definitions of these concepts see Chan and Xu, 1985; Ma and
Cui, 1987; S. Goldstein, 1985; Lee, 1989.) Between 1982 and 1987, the
period that is the focus of this article, the definitions underwent especially
significant changes, generally in the direction of lowering standards for qual-
ifying localities as urban.
The standard for city designation introduced in 1984 reduced require-
ments for minimum population size and for minimum share of nonagricul-
tural workers within the total labor force.2 This change led to a rapid,
substantial rise in the number of such places and in the aggregate city pop-
ulation, and also in the proportion of agricultural population living in cities.
The newly created city of Zibo, in Shandong Province, illustrates the point.
Zibo's 1987 population of 2.4 million was 66 percent agricultural (China,
SSB, 1988a). These 2.4 million are all counted as part of China's 1987 urban
population defined by residence within city boundaries.
In order to promote towns as alternative urban destinations and to
facilitate interchanges between towns and rural areas (People's Daily, 1984),
the official definition of towns was also changed in 1984. Criteria for both
minimum population size and the share of the nonagricultural population
were considerably relaxed.3 This liberalization in criteria resulted in a more
than fourfold increase in the number of localities defined as towns, hence
in a massive reclassification of formerly rural populations as urban.
Not all of the population living in urban places in China is always
counted as urban, however. Rather, the population enumerated as urban
may vary, sometimes considerably, depending on an individual's household
registration status. Persons living in cities or towns but not registered there
as de jure residents are omitted from the urban registration counts, thereby
distorting the data on the size and composition of both urban places and
rural populations at places of origin.
Further complicating this definitional issue is the use of an "agricultural/
nonagricultural" dichotomy, based on the official source of an individual's
grain supply, to define urban status. Registry statistics using this definition
result in estimates of the urban population far different from the urban
population figures given by the 1982 census and the 1987 National Survey.
For example, whereas the 1982 census showed an urban population of 206
million, the registry statistics reported only 138 million urban residents, that
is, persons entitled to buy state-supplied grain. Use of the agricultural/non-
agricultural dichotomy takes on special importance as new cities are created
that incorporate large areas with populations heretofore considered as rural
and as the volume of temporary migration to towns and cities increases. The

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size and composition of the urban population based on urban boundaries

are likely to diverge increasingly from those based on registration or source-
of-grain statistics.
Another source of confusion in delineating China's urban population
relates to city control of adjoining rural counties (Koshizawa, 1978: 15). The
extension of a number of city boundaries to include the rural counties of-
ficially designated as part of the city had resulted by year-end 1987 in a total
of 628.3 million persons under city jurisdiction; yet the cities proper had a
population of only 262.3 million (China, SSB, 1990).4 Moreover, among the
latter, only 129.7 million persons qualified as "nonagricultural." Depending
on which criterion of urban is employed, in 1987 China's city population
could have ranged from only 130 million to as high as 628 million, and from
only 12 percent of China's total population to as high as 58 percent.
Data sources
The data used in the following analysis are largely derived from two sources:
the 1982 census of China (China, SSB, 1985), which here serves as a bench-
mark against which changes in urban/rural composition can be evaluated,
and the 1987 One Percent Sample Survey of the Population of China (referred
to as the 1987 National Survey) undertaken by the China State Statistical
Bureau (1988b).
The 1982 census counted as residents of the place of enumeration all
persons who were living and registered there at the time of the census, as
well as those present who were not registered there but who had lived there
for at least one year or had been away continuously from their place of
registration for at least one year. The 1982 census tabulated only the total
resident population of localities, as defined by the census; no distinction was
made between locally born residents and inmigrants. The census did not
include any direct question on migration.
The 1987 National Survey counted as residents of a given locality: (1)
all persons who had lived there for at least six months, regardless of regis-
tration status; and (2) persons who had been living at the place of enu-
meration for less than six months and who had registered there as permanent
residents. Short-term residents registered elsewhere were counted as living
at their place of registration. Unlike the 1982 census, the 1987 National
Survey addressed direct questions on migration to persons with duration of
residence of less than five years. In its tabulations, the National Survey
distinguished between the nonmigrant and migrant populations. Inmigrants
were those who moved from other cities, towns, or rural counties to the
place of enumeration and were living there on 1 July 1987. They include
all those who changed their official residence registration to the new locality
and also those who did not, but who had left their place of origin more than

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six months earlier and had lived in the new place fewer than five years. The
1987 National Survey did not, however, separately identify temporary mi-
grants.
Because the 1982 census did not distinguish migrants from nonmi-
grants, it provides no basis for comparisons with the data on migration from
the 1987 National Survey. Analysis of migration must therefore largely be
restricted to a comparison of the characteristics of the city, town, and rural
populations in 1982 and 1987, with particular attention to the ways in which
both migration in the five-year interval between the 1982 census and the
1987 National Survey and the more liberal definitions of city and town
introduced in 1984 affect the composition of urban and rural populations.
Urban growth
By China's third census in 1982, 206.4 million of the country's one billion
total population were enumerated in the nation's 244 cities and 2,660 towns.
Since then, the size of the urban (city and town) population is reported to
have risen to 503.6 million in 1987 (China, SSB, 1988a), and the level of
urbanization is reported to have increased from 20.6 percent to 46.6 percent.
But this change has resulted largely from the creation of many additional
cities and towns, based on the new administrative/statistical criteria intro-
duced in 1984. Thus, the reported high rate of urbanization is more a product
of administrative/political decisions than of economic and social develop-
ment, although some true urbanization undoubtedly had occurred.
The statistical rise in the overall level of urbanization between 1982
and 1987 is reflected in the sharp increase in the number of cities and towns
and in their population size (see Table 1). At the end of 1987 the State
TABLE 1 Number, population, and average size of cities and towns

and percent of total urban population, China, 1953, 1982, and 1987
Aggregate Average Percent of total

population size urban
Year Number (millions) (thousands) population
Cities
1953 173 52.4 302.8 59.7
1982 244 145.3 595.3 70.4
1987 381 261.1 685.3 51.8
Towns
1953 5,404 35.3 6.5 40.3
1982 2,660 61.1 23.0 29.6
1987 11,103 242.5 21.8 48.2
SOURCES: Data for 1953 from Ullman (1961); for 1982 from China, State Statistical Bureau (1985: Table 17,
p. 54 and Table 22, p. 87); for 1987 from China, State Statistical Bureau (1988a: 79).

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Statistical Bureau reported 381 cities, an increase of 137 in that number

since 1982 (China, SSB, 1988a). The 1987 city population was 261 million
persons-an increase of 116 million persons from the corresponding 1982
figure. Thus, in 1987 China's cities had far more people than all of urban
China (towns and cities together) had just five years earlier. In 1982, 48
million of the city population, or 33 percent of the total, were classified as
agricultural. By 1987, more than 50 percent of China's city population was
so classified. During the same five years, the number of localities classified
as towns expanded from 2,660 to 11,103 (China Daily, 30 December 1988),
and the town population rose fourfold, from 61 million in mid- 1982 to 243
million at year-end 1987.
In 1982, cities with a population of one million or more constituted
only 16 percent of all cities, but accounted for over 50 percent of all of China's
population living in cities. Almost half of this population lived in cities with
a population of 2.5 million persons or more (see Table 2). By contrast, cities
under 500,000, while accounting for 65 percent of all cities, contained only
25 percent of the total city population. The large number of big cities and
the high proportion of city population concentrated in them help to explain
why strict controls were instituted on their further growth by the Chinese
government (Pannell, 1984: 210-213).
The statistical picture of city hierarchy in China changed dramatically
between 1982 and 1987. The 137 places added to the roster of cities between
1982 and 1987 have not been evenly distributed across the size hierarchy
of the urban structure. Concurrently, the enlargement of existing cities
through natural increase, net inmigration, and extension of boundaries has
shifted the position of many cities within the size hierarchy. The most marked
changes have occurred in the city-size range between 100,000 and 2.5 mil-
lion. Particularly notable is the sharp increase that characterized the two size
categories between 500,000 and 2.5 million: the number of cities and their
aggregate populations roughly doubled.
The change in standards in 1984 that allowed many rural places to
qualify as towns also changed the position of towns in China's overall ur-
banization statistics. The 182 million increase in aggregate town population
made towns a much more important component of China's total urban
population; in 1987 towns accounted for 48 percent of the total, compared
with only 30 percent just five years earlier.
China's urbanization situation by 1987 was marked by a host of seeming
inconsistencies. (1) The level of urbanization, officially reported as rising
from 20.6 percent in 1982 to 46.6 percent in 1987, seems inconsistent with
the increase in the level of economic development achieved during that
period. (2) The rise in the number of big cities (500,000 and over), from 85
in 1982 to 188 in 1987, and the virtual doubling of the number of persons
living in such cities, from 109 million in 1982 to 206 million, seem incon-

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
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sistent with the government's stated goal of containing big-city growth. (3)
The rise in the share of the "agricultural" population in cities, from 33 percent
in 1982 to 50 percent in 1987, seems inconsistent with the stated goal of
limiting rural-to-urban migration (Banister and Taylor, 1989).
The rapid changes in China's urbanization profile as depicted by official
statistics raise several important questions regarding the sociodemographic
structure of the urban and rural populations. In considering these questions,
I will discuss first the role of migration in urban growth and the extent to
which population redistribution appears to conform to policy prescriptions.
Thereafter, I will discuss the changing composition of urban and rural places
and the role of rural-to-urban migration and of the administrative/statistical
reclassification in shaping these changes.
The role of migration in

urban growth
The 1987 National Survey provides the first comprehensive set of estimates
of migration covering all of China. It found that 30.5 million persons, or 2.9
percent of the total population, had moved to other cities, towns, or rural
areas5 during the five years since the 1982 census. These data include migrants
who are legally registered at the place of destination as well as those who
are not so registered but had been living at the place of destination for at
least six months. As a result, based on these data alone, the effects of the
migration-control policy cannot be clearly distinguished from other factors
influencing migration flows.
Temporary versus permanent migration
That much of the migratory movement takes the form of temporary migration
is suggested by news accounts and surveys in individual cities (e.g., A. Gold-
stein, S. Goldstein, and Guo, forthcoming). These sources indicate that in
1988 China had more than 50 million temporary migrants in its population
(Gu, 1990). About one-fifth of these were in the large cities. Specifically, the
23 cities with one million or more population together had 10 million tem-
porary migrants, with Shanghai having the largest number (1.8 million),
followed by Beijing and Guangzhou (with about 1.1 million each) (Workers
Daily, 9 August 1988). More recent estimates indicate the floating population
has amounted to between 60 and 80 million, again, mostly concentrated in
cities and towns (Xinhua News Agency, 1990).
The extent of such temporary movements relative to permanent mi-
gration and the origins of the migrants are indicated by the 1986 CASS
National Migration Survey, which covered 74 cities and towns in China
(Population Research Institute, CASS, 1988; S. Goldstein and A. Goldstein,
forthcoming). Of the 100,267 persons who constituted the sample in this
survey for urban China, 38 percent were migrants who had become per-

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
manent residents in their place of destination since 1949. Of these 38,102

permanent inmigrants, however, only about 2,000 had moved during the
12-month period preceding the survey. During that same 12-month period
3,628 persons entered urban places and were living in households6 as tem-
porary migrants (i.e., were living in cities and towns for less than one year
without a change in registration; temporary migrants living at their place of
destination for more than one year were included by the CASS survey with
the permanent inmigrants). Compared with permanent migration, the survey
showed temporary migration to be particularly important for China's largest
cities. For these places the ratio of temporary to permanent migrants in 1986
ranged between 2.5 and 1.0 compared with only 1.5 to 1.0 for other cities
and towns. Apparently, permanent migration to the largest cities is being
more successfully controlled under China's migration policies than is the
case in other urban places.
Government policy should also be reflected in the origins of permanent
and temporary migrants to the various residence categories. Because tem-
porary movement is not subject to such stringent regulations as permanent
relocation, temporary migrants to larger places should be more likely than
permanent migrants to come from smaller urban places and rural areas.
Small cities and towns can be expected to draw both permanent and tem-
porary migrants from towns and rural areas, but the policy aimed at devel-
oping smaller urban places may concurrently lead to heavier-than-average
temporary movement from larger cities. The CASS data indicate that among
permanent recent migrants to the cities a much larger percentage originated
in other cities than was true of the temporary migrants. By contrast, more
of the temporary migrants to cities of all sizes originated in rural areas. This
finding corroborates the claim that temporary migration serves as a mech-
anism permitting rural populations to take advantage of the opportunities
in cities and is consistent with what one would expect on the basis of either
migration policy or economic development in rural areas.
Movement to towns is also affected by policy. For both permanent and
temporary migrants, a small minority originated in cities. However, this was
more pronounced for recent permanent inmigrants to towns than for tem-
porary migrants. The location in towns of branches of city industry and the
temporary engagement of some city residents in town enterprises probably
account for this difference. A majority of both permanent and temporary
migrants to towns were of rural origin, attesting to the important role that
towns play, not only for permanent inmigration from rural places but also
in providing markets and other economic opportunities for rural residents.
Migration streams
The findings from the 1987 National Survey, which refer largely to permanent
migrants, support many of the patterns revealed by the CASS data. The 1987

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survey documents that migration to urban areas is the most popular direction
of migratory movements in China. Three-fourths of all migrants went to
urban places; only one-fourth moved to rural locations. Two-thirds of all
migrants were rural in origin. Compared with five-year inmigration rates of
41.2 and 47.0 per thousand 1987 population for cities and towns respec-
tively,7 rural areas experienced an inmigration rate from urban places of only
3.0 per thousand population. Outmigration from cities occurred at a rate of
only 11.4 per thousand population, and outmigration from towns was only
11.3 per thousand. On the other hand, movement from rural to urban areas
amounted to 22.2 per thousand of their 1987 population.
The 1987 data suggest that for China as a whole most migration is over
short distances, when distance is indexed by the crossing of a provincial
boundary (see Table 3). Eight out of every ten migrants made an intrapro-
vincial move. Given the large geographic size of many of China's provinces,
it is still possible, however, that the distance involved in intraprovincial moves
was considerable. The highest proportion of interprovincial migration (30
percent) characterized those moving to cities. By contrast, only 11 percent
of those moving to towns and 22 percent of those migrating to rural places
changed province of residence.
The higher proportion of interprovincial migrants to cities is under-
standable in the context of urban growth and migration policy. The stricter
control of movement to cities undoubtedly encourages greater selectivity in
granting the right to be legally registered in the city, with fewer persons
allowed to migrate permanently from nearby areas and more from greater
distances. On the other hand, because policy is more flexible on inmigration
to towns and because towns play an important role as centers for their rural
hinterlands, an exceptionally high proportion of town inmigrants are intra-
provincial migrants, especially among those from rural areas. Reflecting ease
of rural-to-rural migration, the rate of interprovincial migration to rural areas
is twice as high as that to towns. Much of this movement may be related to
TABLE 3 Percent distribution of 1982-87 migrants by type of

move, by 1987 residence, China
Total
number of
1987 Intra- Inter- Total migrants
residence provincial provincial percent (thousands)
City 70.5 29.5 100.0 11,256

Town 88.8 11.2 100.0 11,457
Rural 78.2 21.8 100.0 7,820
Total 79.3 20.7 100.0 30,533
SOURCE: China, State Statistical Bureau (1988b: Table 1-23, p. 23).

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marriage and family, but under the rural reforms some portion of it may
involve the movement of peasants into nonagricultural activities in other
rural places.
The influence of policy can be assessed further through analysis of the
origins of migrants (see Table 4). Whereas 29 percent of the migrants to
cities came from other cities, migrants leaving a city comprised only 12 percent
of those who moved to towns and an even smaller proportion of those going
to rural places. Yet, surprisingly, many inmigrants to cities, 62 percent, were
rural in origin, contrary to policy intent. However, given the extensive ad-
ministrative reclassification of rural places as cities between 1982 and 1987,
some of those identified as rural-to-city migrants in the 1987 National Survey
may in fact have moved from one rural place to another but came to qualify
as rural-to-urban migrants because the destination was reclassified as an
urban place after the move was made.
TABLE 4 Origins and destinations of 1982-87 migrants, and

net migration, by 1987 residence, China
Place of origin
1987
residence City Town Rural Total
Number of migrants (thousands)

City 3,296 1,017 6,943 11,256
Town 1,403 2,001 8,053 11,457
Rural 796 1,260 5,764 7,820
Total 5,495 4,278 20,760 30,533
Percent distribution by origin

City 29.3 9.0 61.7 100.0
Town 12.2 17.5 70.3 100.0
Rural 10.2 16.1 73.7 100.0
Total 18.0 14.0 68.0 100.0
Percent distribution by destination

City 60.0 23.8 33.4 36.9
Town 25.5 46.8 38.8 37.5
Rural 14.5 29.4 27.8 25.6
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Net migration (thousands)

City + 386 - 6,147 - 5,761
Town - 386 - 6,793 - 7,179
Rural +6,147 +6,793 + 12,940
Total + 5,761 + 7,179 -12,940
SOURCE: Same as Table 3.

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
At least 70 percent of the migrants to towns and rural areas were rural
in origin. Towns are evidently serving their intended purpose as alternative
urban destinations for the surplus rural population and as development
centers for their rural hinterlands. The heavy rural-to-rural movement is
consistent with the traditional practice of a bride moving to the residence of
her husband's family. Much urban-to-rural movement would not be expected
given the high premium placed by urban residents on maintaining urban
registration.
The redistribution of population, viewed from the perspective of the
sending area, bears out these observations. A large majority (60 percent) of
the migrants leaving cities moved to other cities; 26 percent went to towns;
and only 15 percent moved to rural areas. City residents are obviously re-
luctant to give up their urban registration. Among those migrating from
towns, 47 percent moved to another town. Of the balance, a somewhat larger
number moved to rural areas than to cities (29 percent versus 24 percent).
This pattern reflects both the greater difficulty in gaining permission to move
up the urban hierarchy and the closer ties between towns and rural areas
than between towns and cities.
The net effect of the rural-urban redistribution was a five-year gain of
5.761 million persons for cities and 7.179 million persons for towns. Thus,
in absolute terms, and also in relation to their respective base populations,
towns experienced a larger net inmigration than did cities-a finding con-
sistent with what one would expect on the basis of policy. The larger flow
of migrants to towns indicates the key role towns have assumed in rural-
to-urban migration and in the development process (see also Shen and Zhang,
1988). The net gain to cities equalled 3.0 percent of the city population
reported by the 1987 National Survey, whereas that of towns equalled 3.6
percent of their population. By contrast rural areas lost 1.9 percent of their
1987 population through outmigration in the previous five years. That all
of the net gain of the cities was a result of the exchange with rural areas
again suggests that the control of movement from villages to cities deviates
considerably from policy goals. The net gains experienced by towns resulted
from net movement from cities and rural areas, although the latter contributed
a disproportional share of such migrants (95 percent). Finally, rural areas
clearly constituted a major reservoir of migrants to both cities and towns,
with the exodus during 1982-87 almost equally divided between the two
destinations.
I now turn to a discussion of the changing composition of city, town,
and rural populations between 1982 and 1987; of the selective character of
migration; and of the possible effects of the administrative/statistical reclas-
sification of urban and rural localities on the comparative characteristics of
those living in cities, towns, and rural areas. This discussion focuses on the
key demographic variables of age and sex, and on the socioeconomic variable
of occupation.

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
The changing urban/rural population

composition
Age
According to China's 1982 census, cities and towns had quite similar age
compositions, but the rural population was much younger (S. Goldstein,
1985). As shown in Table 5, for China as a whole the median age of the
population rose between 1982 and 1987 from 22.9 to 24.2 years, reflecting
the impact of lower fertility and a rising proportion of older persons. Cities
and rural areas experienced similar increases in median age, the former from
26.0 to 27.7 and the latter from 21.5 to 23.1. As a result, the difference in
the median age between the city and rural populations remained about the
same in 1987 as it was in 1982.
By contrast, the median age of persons living in towns declined from
25.3 to 24.5, so that the median age of towns came to resemble that of rural
areas more than of cities. In large part this change reflects the reclassification
of a large number of rural places as towns; the newly designated towns
"brought with them" the characteristics of the rural population, in this case
more younger persons. In part, the change may reflect the greater ease of
migration into towns of family units under Chinese policy, so that towns,
more than cities, may have been destinations of large numbers of younger
rural-to-urban migrants. Compared with the average of 25.3 years for the
total town population in 1982, the median age of the migrants was lower:
22.5.8
That the increase in the average age of the population in cities did not
result from migration is suggested by the median age of migrants to cities
(22.8) during the five-year period 1982-87. Despite the lower average age
of the migrants to cities,9 the average age (27.7 years) of the city population
in 1987 was higher than in 1982, reflecting the countervailing effect of lower
fertility and of the aging of the resident nonmigrant population. The age
structure of the millions of persons added to city populations through re-
classification was evidently not different enough from that of the resident
population to counter the tendency of inmigration to lower the average age
of the city population.
In rural areas 78 percent of the 1982-87 migrants came from other
rural places; they did not therefore affect the overall age composition of rural
places. Migrants originating from cities and towns were on average older
(25.6 and 23.2 years, respectively) than the 1982 population of rural areas.
Moreover, the median age of those leaving rural areas for cities and towns
(22.0) was lower than that of the inmigrants from cities and towns. On
balance, therefore, the combined selective effect of in- and outmigration
undoubtedly contributed to the observed increase in the average age of the
rural population. Whether this impact outweighed the effects of lowered

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
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fertility and the losses resulting from reclassification cannot be ascertained

without fuller information on the effects of both natural increase and re-
classification. Data for the latter, however, are not available.
Sex
In 1982, China as a whole had a sex ratio-defined as the number of males

per 100 females-of 105.5. Considerable differences characterized the three
residence categories (see Table 6). Overall, rural places had the lowest sex
ratio, 104.3, followed by the cities with a sex ratio of 107.6. The much higher
sex ratio of the population of towns (115.6) reflected the heavy concentration
there of men in the labor force ages: in the age group 30 to 60, the sex ratios
in towns ranged between 126 and 147.
The high 1982 sex ratios in towns probably resulted from the inmi-
gration of male workers without their families. Under policies restricting
movement to urban places, male workers were allowed to move to their
place of employment, but their wives and children had to remain in the rural
areas. In 1984, the policies encouraging town development relaxed restric-
tions on permanent movement to towns; rural persons, including wives and
children, were able to become "permanent" residents of towns provided they
did not become a burden on the town government with respect to housing,
food, and employment (People's Daily, 1984).
This change is reflected in the data on sex composition from the 1987
National Survey. By 1987, the sex ratio for China as a whole had declined
slightly to 103.9. This decline seems largely to have stemmed from the aging
of the population and the consequent reduction in the sex ratios in the middle
and upper age range. The other major change was the virtual elimination
by 1987 of differentials in sex ratios for the total population between the
three residence categories. Even within specific age groups the differentials
were far less in 1987 than in 1982, and most were minimal. In large measure
the change reflects the substantial declines in the sex ratios of the working-
age population in towns. By 1987, the range of sex ratios between ages 30
and 60 was only 105 to 112.
The contribution of migration in effecting this change is suggested by
the statistics from the 1987 National Survey, which show that the sex ratio
of migrants in towns was only 80.9, compared with 106.6 for cities. Clearly,
between 1982 and 1987 towns were attracting women at a higher rate than
men, particularly at ages 15-29, an age range that accounted for more than
half of all migrants. Even at ages 30-49, the sex ratios of migrants were far
below those in the corresponding age groups of the 1982 population. The
net effect was to lower the sex ratios that had characterized the town pop-
ulation in 1982. The sex ratio of migrants living in rural areas was even
lower, only 44.2, but this stemmed largely from the heavy rural-to-rural
migration of women at the time of marriage; among rural-to-rural migrants
there were only 34 men per 100 women.

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
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137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
That migration alone could not fully account for the substantial low-
ering of the sex ratio of the town population which occurred between 1982
and 1987 (from 115.6 to 104.4) is indicated by the fact that only 5.7 percent
of the 1987 population had inmigrated during that interval. This contrasts
with the massive increase in the size of the town population in the same
period-from 61 million to 243 million. As was noted above, this fourfold
increase was largely effected by the reclassification of rural places as towns.
One of the results was the inclusion of more family units with a balanced
sex composition in the aggregate town population. Thus, reclassification was
the major factor in lowering the unusually high sex ratio for towns between
1982 and 1987. To a lesser extent, the addition of 145 localities to the roster
of cities during this time, many of them also with large agricultural popu-
lations, contributed to the lowered sex ratios of city populations.
Occupation
The statistics on occupation available on a comparable basis for the various

urban-rural categories for 1982 and 1987 are fairly crude: they divide the
population of labor force age into just seven broad categories (see Table 7).
The 1982 census clearly documented that China was largely a rural,
agricultural nation. Some three-fourths of its total labor force and 86 percent
of the labor force in rural areas were engaged in agriculture. Agriculture also
accounted for as much as 23 percent of the city and 20 percent of the town
labor force-a reflection of the inclusion of areas of rural character within
the boundaries of many of China's cities and of the fact that a number of its
smaller towns were borderline cases in qualifying as urban rather than rural.
In 1982, production and transport workers constituted the single largest
occupational category in cities, with 45.6 percent so employed. Next most
prevalent were agricultural workers, who accounted for almost 25 percent
of the city labor force, followed by professionals, 11 percent. The remaining
20 percent of the labor force were distributed roughly equally among the
other four tertiary occupational categories-cadres, clerical workers, traders,
and service workers. The same order of prevalence characterized the occu-
pational distribution of towns.
In rural areas, agricultural workers accounted for some 86 percent of
the labor force. Production and transport workers and professionals were
second and third. Along with agricultural workers, they accounted for all
but 3 percent of the total labor force in rural areas.
By the time of the 1987 National Survey, the rural and urban reforms
of the early 1980s had had several years in which to have an effect on the
structure of China's total labor force and on the size of the labor force in
rural and urban areas. These effects, observed separately by urban-rural
categories, are, however, confounded by the very strong effects of the ad-

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
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137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
ministrative/statistical reclassification discussed above. While China's total

labor force increased by 12 percent between 1982 and 1987, from 521.5
million to 584.6 million,10 the labor force of cities grew by 33 percent to
108.5 million; and the labor force of towns grew by 231 percent to 107.4
million. During the same time period the rural labor force declined by some
10 percent, from 407.2 to 368.7 million.
Comparison of the census and survey occupational distributions for the
country as a whole in 1982 and 1987 indicates only small changes in the
structure of China's labor force. A slight decline occurred in the proportion
reported in agriculture," from 72.0 to 70.8, and a small rise in the proportion
of production and transport workers, from 16.0 percent to 16.4 percent.
Professionals declined slightly from 5.1 percent to 4.5 percent. The absence
of sharper occupational changes, especially in agriculture, may reflect the
fact that many of those who entered nonagricultural activities during this
interval also continued to remain active in agriculture (in Chinese terms,
they were "half-peasant, half-worker") and probably continued to identify
themselves in surveys as peasants even though they engaged part-time in
nonagricultural work.
Changes in occupational structure in the various locations were more
pronounced. For cities, the sharpest changes were the increase in the pro-
portion of agricultural workers (from 23.4 to 28.9 percent) and the decline
in the proportion of production and transport workers (from 45.6 to 38.1
percent). The proportions of professionals and service workers changed min-
imally, and the percentages of cadres, clerical workers, and traders rose
slightly. These data indicate that the inclusion of additional rural areas within
city boundaries led to an increase in the proportion of peasants in the city
population and to a reduction in the proportion of nonagricultural workers.
Judged by occupational composition, the cities in the aggregate had therefore
become more rural rather than more urban.
The same pattern of change, in more accentuated form, characterized
the towns. In contrast to 1982, when only one in five of the town labor
force held agricultural occupations, well over half of the 1987 labor force
(58.3 percent) was so engaged. This threefold increase and the corresponding
reduction by about half in the proportion of production and transport workers
(from 41.8 percent to 22.0 percent), professionals (from 13.2 percent to 6.5
percent), and each of the smaller occupational groups reflect the impact of
the reclassification of a large number of rural, highly agricultural places as
towns. In 1987, localities classified as towns were much more similar to
China's rural areas than was the case in 1982. As was true for cities, the net
effect of the changes in the urban-rural classificatory criteria introduced in
1984 has been to include more peasants in town populations and thereby
to "ruralize" the aggregate town population. To the extent that towns con-
stitute a growing proportion of the total urban population, the effect extends
to the urban population as a whole.

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
Compared with the labor force of cities and towns, the occupational
composition of rural areas changed little between 1982 and 1987. The pro-
portion with agricultural occupations increased slightly (from 85.9 percent
to 86.8 percent). This slight shift, too, is probably an effect of the adminis-
trative reclassification of 1984. The creation of more cities and towns and
the expansion of existing ones probably entailed the absorption of the more
developed segments of the former rural areas. As a result, rural areas would
have lost not only some of their agricultural population, but proportionally
an even greater number of their nonagricultural workers.
These comparisons of the 1982 and 1987 occupational distributions
strongly indicate that rural-to-urban reclassification played a key role in the
observed shifts. Migration, however, may also have contributed to the
changes through the movement of individuals in selected occupational
groups. But to fully assess the impact of migration on this score would require
information not only on changes in residence but also on changes in oc-
cupation for both migrants and nonmigrants. Such information is not avail-
able from the 1987 National Survey. The only published data from that
survey on the relation between migration and occupation refer to the oc-
cupational composition of the inmigrants by urban-rural residence.
For China as a whole, comparison of the occupational distribution of
the total labor force in 1987 with those who moved between 1982 and 1987
indicates that every occupational group but farmers had a higher migration
rate than would be expected on the basis of their numbers in the total
population. For example, the proportion of migrants who were production
and transport workers (30.5 percent) was almost twice as high as their
proportional representation in the total labor force (16.4 percent). For the
professionals the relative difference was even greater, 12.5 percent compared
with only 4.5 percent. Even in the smaller occupational categories, the dif-
ferential was generally in a ratio of 2: 1. By contrast, only about half as many
agricultural workers (37.9 percent) migrated as might be expected from their
predominance (70.8 percent) in the labor force. Migration in China between
1982 and 1987 thus heavily involved all segments of the nonagricultural
labor force. Unfortunately, these data do not allow ascertaining the extent
to which the mobile nonagricultural segments are composed of former peas-
ants who had changed to nonagricultural work by the time of the 1987
survey.
The extent of occupational differentials between migrants and the pop-
ulation as a whole varies by residence category. For cities, professionals,
clerical workers, traders, and service workers were found more frequently
among the migrants than in the total population. On the other hand, fewer
cadres and only slightly more than the expected proportion of production
and transport workers were migrants. Relatively few agricultural laborers
(only 12.4 percent) were migrants, far fewer than their 28.9 percent share

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
in the city population. Overall, these differentials suggest that the tertiary
sector is providing most opportunities for migrants to the cities. Nonetheless,
the single largest occupational group among the migrants was production
and transport workers. That such workers were followed by professionals as
the most mobile groups points to the highly selective character of the mi-
gration process.
The developing character of towns, the rapid pace of their growth, and
the fewer restrictions on migration to towns are reflected in the lesser degree
of occupational selectivity operating in movement to towns. With the ex-
ception of agricultural workers, the migrants included higher percentages in
every occupational group than the shares of these groups in the total labor
force. Clearly, as towns expand they attract persons with all types of non-
agricultural skills. This finding supports the earlier conclusion that the high
percentage of agricultural workers found in towns in 1987 results from the
reclassification of rural places to town status and the inclusion of agricultural
workers living in these areas as town residents, rather than from the migration
to towns of agricultural workers who continued as members of the agri-
cultural labor force.
Rural areas also experienced change in the occupational structure as
a result of migration. Whereas 86.8 percent of the 1987 total rural labor
force was in agriculture, this was true of only 77.6 percent of the migrants
in rural areas. Thus, almost twice as high a proportion of the migrants were
in nonagricultural activities than was the case for the total labor force in
rural areas. This differential between the occupational characteristics of mi-
grants and of the total rural population characterized every nonagricultural
category. To the extent that such selective migration is an index of devel-
opment, the evidence shows that rural areas were experiencing considerable
change.
Discussion
Rapid changes have occurred in the structure of Chinese agriculture due to

the introduction of the household responsibility system in 1979 and the
dismantling of the communes after 1980. The resulting greater efficiency in
production, and the momentum of population growth in rural areas bringing
ever-larger cohorts to labor force age, have created a vast and still-growing
number of surplus laborers in rural areas.
While concerned about the productive absorption of the surplus labor,
the Chinese government has also been determined to avoid the "overur-
banization" that it perceives as having negatively affected the quality of life
in many Third World cities, including also China's cities in earlier times. The
adoption of policies aimed at controlling the growth of large cities and of
permanent migration to them has been a response of the Chinese government

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
to the growing pressures generating rural-to-urban movement. In themselves,

such policies are of course inadequate to solve the problem of the approx-
imately 100 million surplus laborers (Banister and Taylor, 1989) esti-
mated as existing in China's rural areas and the some 100 million more ex-
pected to be added to that number by the year 2000 (Wang, Liu, and Wang,
1989). Closing off the cities as alternative places of permanent residence
and employment means that other methods are needed to cope with the
surplus.
Part of the surplus is absorbed through diversification within agriculture
from cultivating basic crops to sideline activities such as rearing livestock
and developing fisheries, orchards, and small market gardening. More im-
portantly, several approaches have been used as mechanisms for transform-
ing a substantial part of the agricultural labor force into nonagricultural
workers: (1) the development of nonagricultural activities in rural areas; (2)
the development of towns as commercial, industrial, and service centers for
their rural hinterlands and as alternative destinations for those wishing to
settle in urban places; and (3) much greater reliance on temporary migration
as an alternative to permanent migration to cities and towns. Temporary
migration allows urban places to meet their special labor force and service
needs, helps to reduce rural surplus labor, and avoids burdening cities with
the responsibility for absorbing vast numbers of rural-to-urban migrants into
their permanent population.
Nonetheless, permanent migration does play a role in China in shifting
population from rural to urban places. Statistics from the 1987 National
Survey show a net movement of 12.9 million persons from rural to urban
places during 1982-87, almost equally divided between cities and towns.
This relatively small redistribution of the population to urban places and the
fact that so much of it had been to smaller places suggest that government
control of permanent movement to cities, judged on its own terms, had been
relatively successful.
The partial movement out of agriculture into nonagricultural activities
is also documented by estimates relating to 1985, which show that 36 million
persons in China (about 10 percent of the rural labor force) were "peasant-
workers," that is, registered in rural areas but engaged in nonagricultural
work (Muo, 1985). The number involved to some extent in nonagricultural
activities is of course far greater. For example, some 50 million persons were
estimated to be "floating population" in China in 1988 ("Floating population
exceeds 50 million," 1990), with at least three of China's largest cities each
encompassing more than one million temporary migrants. The strong eco-
nomic links between rural and urban places resulting from such movement
lend some support to McGee's (1989) thesis that the urban transition in
China, as in other parts of Asia, is effecting the emergence of a number of
mega-urban regions that involve, among other features, a very high degree
of mobility of people and goods.

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
Yet the mechanisms for absorbing and transforming the agricultural

labor force have not met China's concurrent modernization goals of devel-
oping urban areas and fostering industrialization-goals that may be seen
as conflicting with the stated policy of controlling city growth, largely through
controlling migration to cities. Further inconsistencies between the policies
designed to control urban growth are evidenced in the programs to give big
cities leadership roles in the development of smaller urban places and rural
hinterlands, and in the designation of four Special Economic Zones and of
certain coastal cities as special centers of economic development.
Similar contradictions are inherent in the adoption of more flexible
criteria for designating places as cities and towns. This practice has resulted
in an extraordinary rise in the level of urbanization, essentially by admin-
istrative fiat.
The urban statistics discussed in this article demonstrate the drastic
effects that definitional changes can exert on the measured size of the urban/
rural population of particular countries and illustrate the danger in accepting
uncritically particular country definitions as the basis for assessing the process
of urbanization, especially in relation to development. The danger of doing
so takes on a broader significance when the country is as large as China; its
statistics strongly affect measured regional and worldwide patterns.
Reflecting the growing proportion of the agricultural population within
urban boundaries, the statistical consequences of the more flexible criteria
for designating places as urban go well beyond the figures indicating the
number of such places and the size of their populations; they also affect their
sociodemographic composition. Rural populations differ, often substantially,
from urban residents on a host of sociodemographic characteristics. Thus, a
substantial shift of the rural population through the reclassification of lo-
calities into the urban category will result in measured urban population
characteristics more closely resembling the characteristics of rural locations.
These changes may, in turn, be amplified by migration if many persons move
from rural areas to the newly designated urban places, either as permanent
or as temporary migrants.
In combination, reclassification and migration have had a substantial
impact on the size and composition of the urban population in China. During
the period considered, reclassification-essentially a statistical artifact-was
much more important than migration. The net result is that in 1987, the
urban population of China had quite a different sociodemographic statistical
profile than it had just five years earlier. Moreover, because the numerical
impact of reclassification on the town population was greater than that on
cities, the available evidence suggests that the change in the sociodemo-
graphic statistical profile of towns toward a more rural character has been
sharper than in cities.
Restriction of much of the information on population movement to
permanent migration overlooks most or all of the substantial temporary

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
movement. This results in (1) underestimation of the total volume of mi-

gration and, as a consequence, underestimation of the population resident
and/or functioning in a city or town at any given time; and (2) a biased
profile of the socioeconomic composition of the migrant population, to the
extent that characteristics of temporary migrants differ substantially from
those of permanent migrants. These potential distortions have relevance both
for assessing the impact of migration on the structure and dynamics of the
urban labor force, particularly as these relate to the informal sector, and for
evaluating the impact of migration on urban infrastructure. These distortions
also affect our ability to assess the linkages between cities, towns, and rural
areas.
Improvements in transportation and communication have effectively
extended urban influence to encompass hinterland rural areas that are the
main areas of origin of temporary migrants and commuters working in cities
and towns. In this way, as Findley (1990) argues, urban places are able to
diversify their population structures and labor force in ways far different from
what was possible before the transportation/communication revolution. The
net effect is that a large array of rural groups and individuals have developed
different degrees of permanence in their connection to and base in towns
and cities. This greatly affects the number of people residing in urban places,
the composition of the population and the labor market, and the types of
services available. The presence of so many temporary migrants in China
must especially be taken into account in assessments of big-city growth and
of the role of large-scale migratory movements in both urban and rural
development.
The foregoing evaluation of the effects of reclassification and migration
on the size and characteristics of China's urban and rural populations in-
dicates that urbanization in China means something far different from what
may be implied by an uncritical acceptance of the official statistics on changes
in the number of cities and towns, in the size and composition of the urban
population, and in the levels and rate of urbanization. Great caution must
therefore be exercised in using these official statistics to assess the inter-
relations between urbanization, migration, and development in China. Ab-
sent such caution, it might be erroneously concluded that urbanization has
minimal connection to development and modernization in China, or that
the Chinese have found a way to achieve high levels of urbanization while
also controlling migration to urban areas and rapid urban growth.
Notes
This article was written while the author was Residence at the Rockefeller Study Center,
Senior Visiting Fellow at the East-West Pop- Bellagio, Italy. The critical review of this article
ulation Institute, Honolulu, and Scholar in by Alice Goldstein is much appreciated.

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
1 For an evaluation of how temporary mi- year-end 1987, instead of the 381 cities in-
gration compares to permanent migration in cluded in China Statistical Yearbook 1988
volume, direction, and composition, and of its (China, SSB, 1988a). Only China Urban Sta-
impact on urban growth, see S. Goldstein, A. tistics disaggregates the population in the city
Goldstein, and Gu, 1990; and S. Goldstein and proper from the total population under city
A. Goldstein, forthcoming. jurisdiction.
2 In 1964 and 1982, cities were defined 5 Rural areas of China are variously re-
as places with a population of more than ferred to as counties, villages, or rural places.
100,000 or places with a population of fewer This article will generally use the designation
than 100,000 that were provincial capitals or "rural areas."
satisfied other special criteria (Ma An, 1984: 6 The CASS statistics provide only mini-
12-13). Beginning in 1984, a township seat mum estimates of the number of temporary
could become a county-level city, that is, re-
migrants since they do not include all tem-
sponsible to the county government, if it had porary migrants living in free markets, at con-
a population of at least 60,000 and if its econ- struction sites, and in hotels and other group
omy had an annual gross product of at least quarters.
200 million yuan; no minimum percentage of
7 In calculating the in- and outmigration
nonagricultural workers was required. A
rates, movement within the city, town, and
county could become a prefecture-level city,
rural categories was excluded.
that is, responsible to the provincial govern-
ment, if, for those with less than 500,000 8 Even if the migrants nmoving between
population, it had at least 100,000 in non- towns are omitted from the median calcula-
agriculture and an annual gross product of tion (since they do not affect the overall town
300 million yuan. Those with more than average), the median age of the remaining
500,000 population had to have at least inmigrants (22.1 for those coming from rural
120,000 nonagricultural workers and a gross areas and 24.1 for those moving from cities)
product of 400 million yuan a year (Yeh and is lower than that of the town residents.
Xu, 1990). 9 Even if the migrants moving between
3 In 1963 and 1982, places qualified as cities are omitted when calculating the median
towns if they had a minimum of 3,000 persons age of migrants (since they do not affect the
with 70 percent being nonagricultural, or if overall city average), the median age of the
they had a population of 2,500 to 3,000 with remaining inmigrants, 22.6, is lower than that
more than 85 percent being nonagricultural. of the city residents.
(For additional criteria see Ni, 1960; Ullman, 10 To maximize comparability, this anal-
1961; Ma An, 1984.) Since 1984, the follow- ysis relies on data from the 1982 census and
ing locations can be designated as towns: (a) the 1987 National Survey, which used the
all localities serving as seats of county gov- same definitions and measurements, rather
ernment; (b) the township seat in townships than on registry statistics. For the same period,
with a total population of less than 20,000, the registry statistics show an increase of 17
if the nonagricultural population exceeds percent, from 453 million to 528 million
2,000; (c) the township seat in townships with (China, SSB, 1988a: 127).
a population of more than 20,000, if 10 per- 11 These data are derived from statistics
cent or more of the total population is non-
on occupational composition from the 1982
agricultural. Lower nonagricultural standards census and the 1987 National Survey. In tab-
are allowed in minority areas, for isolated lo- ulations based on annual registry data, the
cations, mountainous areas, and areas with State Statistical Bureau reported a decline in
concentrations of factories and mines, or for the primary sector from 68.3 percent at year-
small ports, frontier locations, and scenic spots end 1982 to 60.1 percent at year-end 1987
(China, SSB, 1988a: 922).
(China, SSB, 1988a: 127). The registry data
4 The publication China Urban Statistics are based on a smaller number of labor force
1988 (China, SSB, 1990) lists 382 cities at participants, as indicated in the previous note.

137.99.142.8 on Wed, 29 Nov 2023 21:05:41 +00:00
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Goldstein UrbanizationChina198287 1990

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Urbanization in China, 1982-87: Effects of Migration and Reclassification

Author(s): Sidney Goldstein

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1972962

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POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 16, NO. 4 (DECEMBER 1990) 673

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been key components of China's drive to modernization (Tan, 1986). Because

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This article addresses a number of issues related to urbanization in

Defining urban places and the

Since the establishment of the People's Republic, considerable confusion has

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size and composition of the urban population based on urban boundaries

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TABLE 1 Number, population, and average size of cities and towns

Aggregate Average Percent of total

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Statistical Bureau reported 381 cities, an increase of 137 in that number

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The role of migration in

Temporary versus permanent migration

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manent residents in their place of destination since 1949. Of these 38,102

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TABLE 3 Percent distribution of 1982-87 migrants by type of

City 70.5 29.5 100.0 11,256

Total 79.3 20.7 100.0 30,533

SOURCE: China, State Statistical Bureau (1988b: Table 1-23, p. 23).

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TABLE 4 Origins and destinations of 1982-87 migrants, and

Number of migrants (thousands)

Total 5,495 4,278 20,760 30,533

Percent distribution by origin

Rural 10.2 16.1 73.7 100.0

Total 18.0 14.0 68.0 100.0

Percent distribution by destination

Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Net migration (thousands)

Total + 5,761 + 7,179 -12,940

SOURCE: Same as Table 3.

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The changing urban/rural population

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fertility and the losses resulting from reclassification cannot be ascertained

In 1982, China as a whole had a sex ratio-defined as the number of males

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The statistics on occupation available on a comparable basis for the various

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ministrative/statistical reclassification discussed above. While China's total

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