The 15 most populous prefecture-level cities in China: Three cities exceed 10 million and the total population exceeds 130 million

The 15 most populous prefecture-level cities in China: Three cities exceed 10 million, with a total population of more than 130 million

　　Suzhou, Linyi, Nanyang, Handan, Baoding, Weifang, Wenzhou, Xuzhou, Heze, and Quanzhou are currently the 10 prefecture-level cities with the largest permanent population

　　Author: Lin Xiaozhao

　　In the current process of accelerating urbanization, the leading role of central cities is critical.

　　Central cities include municipalities directly under the Central Government, provincial capital cities, and cities separately designated in the state plan, as well as some common prefecture-level cities, especially some common prefecture-level cities with large populations.

According to statistics from a reporter from China Business News, Suzhou, Linyi, Nanyang, Handan, Baoding, Weifang, Wenzhou, Xuzhou, Heze, and Quanzhou are currently the 10 prefecture-level cities with the largest permanent population; if it is expanded to the top 15, it will also include Ganzhou, Zhoukou, Dongguan, Jining, and Fuyang also have a permanent population of over 8.2 million.

The total population of 15 prefecture-level cities exceeds 130 million, accounting for nearly one-tenth of the national population.

　　Among these cities, there are developed coastal cities such as Suzhou, Quanzhou, Dongguan and Wenzhou, and cities in underdeveloped areas such as Nanyang, Handan, Baoding, Heze, Zhoukou, and Fuyang.

Image source: Yicai.com

Three cities with over 10 million population

　　The data shows that there are currently three ordinary prefecture-level cities with a permanent population exceeding 10 million, of which Suzhou tops the list with 10.75 million.

Suzhou is also an ordinary prefecture-level city with the largest economic aggregate in my country. Last year, Suzhou's GDP reached 1,923.6 billion yuan, ranking sixth among all cities in the country.

　　After the reform and opening up, the southern Jiangsu region near Shanghai developed rapidly with its export-oriented industries. Suzhou, which is adjacent to Shanghai, through the division of labor and cooperation with Shanghai, the industrial economy has also developed rapidly, becoming the city with the largest industrial output value in the country.

　　Several county-level cities under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, including Kunshan, Zhangjiagang and Changshu, have long been among the top 100 counties in China.

Kunshan City's 2019 Statistical Communiqué shows that the city's GDP reached 404.506 billion yuan, making it the country's first county-level city with a GDP exceeding 400 billion yuan and fiscal revenue exceeding 40 billion yuan.

According to the 2020 China Top 100 County Economy Rankings, Kunshan has ranked first for 16 consecutive years.

If we compare Kunshan with prefecture-level listings, it surpasses provincial capitals such as Guiyang and Taiyuan, and ranks about 56th in the city list.

　　Associate Professor Ding Changfa of the Department of Economics of Xiamen University analyzed by CBN reporters that Suzhou is backed by Shanghai and the spillover effect of accepting Shanghai is very significant. Whether it is the development of Suzhou's export-oriented economy after reform and opening up, or the development of high-tech industries in recent years, Shanghai Both the service and the radiation-driven role are critical to it.

　　Data show that in 2019, Suzhou's per capita GDP reached 179,200 yuan, which is far ahead of these populous cities.

Due to its developed economy, Suzhou has also attracted a large number of people to enter. Last year, Suzhou's net inflow of population reached 3.52 million.

　　Linyi, Shandong and Nanyang, Henan have a total population of more than 10 million, ranking second and third; in addition, there are four ordinary prefecture-level cities with a permanent population of more than 9 million, namely Handan and Baoding in Hebei, Weifang and Weifang in Shandong. Wenzhou, Zhejiang.

　　Among the top 15 cities mentioned above, several cities such as Suzhou, Quanzhou, Dongguan, and Wenzhou have developed highly industrialized cities, attracting a large influx of foreign people, thus becoming populous cities; in contrast, cities such as Nanyang, Zhoukou, and Fuyang have a large outflow of population. .

　　In terms of regional distribution, the large population cities in Shandong, Hebei, and Henan are particularly concentrated.

Niu Fengrui, a researcher at the Urban Development and Environmental Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed to a reporter from China Business News that the population of the Huanghuaihai Plain is particularly large, with a population of more than 1,000 people per square kilometer in some places, and prefecture-level cities have many counties under their jurisdiction. This makes it easier to form a populous city.

Although many of these populous cities are outflow cities, their population base is still very large.

　　For example, Nanyang currently has 2 municipal districts, 10 counties and 1 county-level city; Baoding has 5 districts, 4 county-level cities, and 15 counties; Linyi has 3 districts and 9 counties; under Handan It has jurisdiction over 6 districts, 11 counties and 1 county-level city.

　　In other words, although these cities have a large population, a considerable part of the population comes from the counties and cities under their jurisdiction. The population of the central city is not large. For example, the population of Nanyang is only 1.6 million, while Baoding has only 1.73 million. There are only more than 400,000 people in Zhoukou, and the central cities of these populous cities are relatively small, which is far from the first and second tier cities.

As a result, these prefecture-level cities have insufficient industrial development, and the central urban areas have relatively weak agglomeration of resource elements and radiation leadership.

Different future paths for populous cities

　　From the perspective of the per capita GDP of 15 cities, there are 5 cities that exceed the national average of 70,892 yuan. They are Suzhou, Quanzhou, Dongguan, Xuzhou, and Wenzhou. All of them come from the developed southeast coastal areas. Among them, Suzhou, Quanzhou and Dongguan exceed the national average. 100,000 yuan.

The private economy of these cities is very developed, and the development of manufacturing industry is very prominent.

　　The other 10 cities are below the national average. Among them, 8 cities have a per capita GDP of less than 50,000 yuan, and 7 cities are less than 40,000 yuan, namely Fuyang, Baoding, Handan, Zhoukou, Nanyang, Heze and Ganzhou.

These cities are mainly from the central and western regions, Hebei, and the southwest of the mountain. The lowest Fuyang and Baoding are less than half of the national average.

　　The urbanization rate is also an important reference for the economic development level of a populous city.

Among the 15 cities, 5 cities have an urbanization rate exceeding the national average of 60.60% in 2019.

Among them, Dongguan ranked first with 92.1%, Suzhou and Wenzhou also exceeded 70%, and Quanzhou reached 67.2%.

The urbanization rate of 10 cities is lower than the national level. Among them, Zhoukou, Fuyang, and Nanyang are all lower than 50%, and Ganzhou, Linyi, and Baoding are lower than 55%. These places have great potential for urbanization in the future.

　　The difference in the level of economic development also affects the flow of population.

Economically developed areas such as Dongguan, Suzhou, Quanzhou, and Wenzhou have developed industries and many employment opportunities, which have attracted a large inflow of foreign population.

For example, the net inflow of Dongguan's population reached 5,953,900, while the local registered population was 2.5106 million, and the phenomenon of "upside down" between the registered population and the permanent resident population appeared.

In addition, Suzhou's net population inflow reached 3.524 million, and Quanzhou's net inflow reached 1.133 million.

　　In contrast, many populous cities in the central and western regions are exodus.

For example, Zhoukou has a net outflow of about 3 million people, Fuyang has a net outflow of 2.51 million, and Nanyang has a net outflow of nearly 2 million.

　　For these populous cities, the path of future development varies.

Ding Changfa said that Dongguan and Suzhou have a big commonality, that is, there are international cities nearby, Dongguan is close to Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and Suzhou is close to Shanghai.

The industry, capital, and talent spillover effects in first-tier cities are significant.

For example, in the high-tech industry, among the top four cities outside the first-tier cities, Suzhou and Dongguan rank the top two, largely due to the driving force of the next-tier cities.

At present, the transformation and upgrading of Dongguan and Suzhou are relatively successful.

　　Quanzhou and Wenzhou, the two major manufacturing cities far from the core areas of urban agglomerations and first-tier cities, are another situation.

Ding Changfa said that Wenzhou and Quanzhou mainly rely on endogenous development and the local private economy is developed. Compared with Suzhou and Dongguan, these two cities need more industrial upgrading.

For example, Quanzhou has developed light and textile industry, and Wenzhou has also developed light industry. At the same time, the major bottleneck of the two cities is similar, that is, the lack of talents. In addition, the two cities have developed counties with developed economies and weak driving capabilities in central urban areas.

How to break these bottlenecks is critical to future development.

　　Niu Fengrui believes that the agricultural production conditions in the Huanghuaihai Plain are very good, and the output per unit of arable land is very high. At the same time, there are more surplus labors in rural areas. Therefore, many people flow to Beijing and Shanghai. Wait for big cities.

In recent years, with the development of regional central cities such as Hefei, Zhengzhou, Jinan, and Shijiazhuang, many people have also moved to these cities.

Compared with central cities with prominent service industries, these populous cities will focus on the development of manufacturing in the future.

　　Ding Changfa said that the key to the advantages of large countries lies in whether these populous cities can give full play to their comparative advantages.

my country's labor-intensive industries have a very complete industrial chain, and these industries still have a lot of room for development in such populous cities as Nanyang, Zhoukou, Baoding, and Fuyang.

For these cities, the most important thing is whether they can improve the local transportation, logistics, water and electricity, and business environment and other hardware and software environments, make full use of local labor advantages, develop local industries, and accelerate local industrialization and urbanization. process.

　　Peng Peng, the executive chairman of the Guangdong System Reform Research Association, also believes that ordinary manufacturing still has a lot of room for development in third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities, and that ordinary manufacturing in first- and second-tier cities should be transferred to third-, fourth-, and fifth-tier cities with larger populations. Form a reasonable division of labor and cooperation.