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Population is a "barometer" that reflects a city's economic prosperity, and the Yangtze River Delta is in the first "camp" in the battle for urban scale expansion.
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Hangzhou's urban population has exceeded 10 million, and it has been promoted from a megacity to a megacity, while Hefei and Suzhou have crossed the 5 million mark, making them one of the megacities.
In the context of the negative population growth of the Yangtze River Delta, why do the populations of these cities "swim upstream", and what kind of chain reaction will the demographic changes trigger?
Liu Shilin, dean of the Institute of Urban Sciences of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, believes that there are many super-large and mega-cities in the Yangtze River Delta, which is in line with the law of urban development. Because one of the characteristics of contemporary urban development is that the population will be concentrated in cities with better infrastructure and better public services, including industrial development opportunities. Liu Shilin pointed out that the development of urban agglomerations is the same as urban development, that is, population and economy. There are many trillion-dollar GDP cities in the Yangtze River Delta, so it is not surprising that the urban population exceeds 5 million and more than 10 million, because the population and economy interact with each other benignly.
Mega cities enjoy better resource treatment in urban villages, metropolitan area construction and other aspects, and cities in the Yangtze River Delta compete for this.
According to the urban pyramid system delineated in the 2016 Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration Development Plan, Nanjing was the only megacity in the Yangtze River Delta after the megacity of Shanghai, and Hangzhou, along with Suzhou and Hefei, was still only a Type I city at that time.
Today, Nanjing's status as the "second city" has given way to Hangzhou, while Hefei, Suzhou and even Ningbo have challenged it.
In the past five years, the temporary population of Hefei has increased from 2.01 million to nearly 3.32 million, and that of Suzhou has increased from 800,000 to 1.89 million. This means that there are at least one million more out-of-towners renting and working in these two cities in the past five years.
In this regard, Lin Chenhui, assistant to the president of the Shanghai branch of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, said that the promotion and development of any city depends on the city's industrial economy or industrial development, which is what we usually call the core function and competitiveness. Another indicator is the vitality of the city. "Nowadays, people are more and more looking for the comfort of life, so the livability and quality of the city are very important," Lin Chenhui explained.
The continent has passed the era of high population growth. Data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics showed that the total number of Chinese decreased by 850,000 in 2022, the first negative population growth in nearly 61 years.
At present, the idea of attracting people to settle down in various places is constantly changing, and it has evolved from "gathering talents" to "increasing population".
Pan Zehan, deputy director of the Institute of Population Studies at Fudan University's School of Social Development and Public Policy, argues that household registration is tied to the right to public services enjoyed by individuals. At the same time, household registration also involves the public service resources that local governments are required to provide. So, whether a person decides to settle down or not depends mainly on the extent of the value of the public services that the place can provide. Pan Zehan said that the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration has its own development, and there are many "trillion GDP clubs", and the development of urban-rural integration is unique, which makes the treatment of citizens in the entire Yangtze River Delta have their own characteristics, and people's choices for settling down are more diverse.
From the population size of megacities and megacities to the vitality and challenges of the development of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, no matter which level, we can see the vigorous development vitality of the entire region under the background of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta.
(Take a look at the news Knews reporter He Jinglan)