Migrant workers in China - statistics & facts
The number of rural migrant workers in China ranged at 297.5 million in 2023, comprising more than one third of the Chinese labor force. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the number of migrant workers decreased slightly in 2020, but rebounded again in 2021 and 2022. Rural migrant laborers propelled the extraordinary boom of China’s economy over the last decades but are still subject to discrimination and unfair treatment. Their children often have limited access to healthcare and education and are often separated from their parents for years on end.
In recent years there has been a relative increase in migrant workers that can find employment close to their home regions. This trend is backed by the accelerating economic development of inland cities and the countryside in general. The share of rural migrant laborers that did not leave their home province for work exceeded 75 percent in 2023. In contrast, the economically better developed coastal regions in East China, which still attracts the majority of migrant workers, saw a drop in the total number of workers in the region. This trend is most obvious in the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas, which both experienced a significant decrease in numbers of migrant workers over the last decade.
Rural migrants and urbanization in China
The definition of rural migrant workers used by the authorities in China is relatively broad and includes all people that still have a rural household registration but engage in non-agricultural work in their home area, or leave their home area for work for more than six months per year. The number of migrant workers, therefore, not only gives a good impression of the scale of the still ongoing urbanization in China, but also of the size of the workforce that left the agricultural sector to find employment in industry and services.In recent years there has been a relative increase in migrant workers that can find employment close to their home regions. This trend is backed by the accelerating economic development of inland cities and the countryside in general. The share of rural migrant laborers that did not leave their home province for work exceeded 75 percent in 2023. In contrast, the economically better developed coastal regions in East China, which still attracts the majority of migrant workers, saw a drop in the total number of workers in the region. This trend is most obvious in the Yangtze and Pearl River Deltas, which both experienced a significant decrease in numbers of migrant workers over the last decade.
