China: population of major cities 2021

In 2021, around 27.8 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 20.9 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 17.6 million in 2020, a nearly 70 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 56,800 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 25 and 23 million, respectively, before 2035.

Estimated population of first and new first tier cities in China in 2021, by city (in million inhabitants)

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Release date

May 2018

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Region

Asia, China

Survey time period

2021

Supplementary notes

The methodology for accounting city population in China applied by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) varies from the administrative method generally applied by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. The UN DESA defines its calculation method by counting "population in all city districts meeting the criteria such as contiguous built-up areas, being the location of the local government, being a street or having a resident committee." In contrast, the National Bureau of Statistics of China normally counts all people living in the administrative units under the city in question as population of that city, even though some districts might be located in distant outskirts not closely connected to the city.

The selection of cities follows the definition of first and new first tier cities by Yicai Media Group.

Values have been rounded.

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