China's Urbanization Levels: Reconstructing a Baseline from the Fifth Population Census

China's fifth population census taken on 1 November 2000 reveals that the mainland had a total population of 1,265.83 million, of which 455.94 million were urban residents (chengzhen renkou). This suggests that the level of urbanization was 36.09 per cent. Whereas this is a reasonable figure that appears to fit well the general rising trend of urbanization shown in the previous four censuses, the levels of urbanization reported in the five censuses are not really comparable because the criteria used to enumerate “urban” population have been different for different censuses. Before the State Statistical Bureau produces a set of comparable figures on the levels of China's urbanization based on a set of uniform criteria, the problem of data incomparability concerning the levels of urbanization will continue to baffle users. This report analyses the statistical criteria defining China's urban population used in the 2000 census, compares them with the criteria of the previous censuses and presents two sets of adjusted and internally coherent time-series data to remedy the problem of data incomparability.

Income and Inequality in China: Composition, Distribution and Growth of Household Income, 1988 to 1995

The first comprehensive effort to estimate household income and its distribution in China according to standard international definitions was made for the year 1988 by an international group of economists working with members of the host institution, the Economics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). The sample survey designed by this team produced estimates of household income that were substantially different from those of the State Statistical Bureau (SSB), based on its annual surveys, with different implications for both the average standard of living and the degree of inequality of income distribution. The study, first reported in the pages of this journal in December 1992, found that per capita household income was both substantially higher and more unequally distributed than suggested by the SSB estimates. It also provided insights into sources of inequality in China that were unobtainable from the published official data on income and its distribution.

China's Industrial Performance Since 1978

In the late 1970s, Chinese industry was on the verge of collapse. Its high but erratic rate of growth since 1949 had been achieved by using ever-increasing amounts of labour and capital. Not only was industry operating inefficiently, but the output mix was inappropriate and inventories had accumulated to very high levels. However, the true state of affairs had been obscured by the political turmoil of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and the virtual disbanding of the State Statistical Bureau (SSB).

Defining China's Rural Population

It is standard practice, both within and outside China, to divide its population between rural and urban. However, this distinction is more complex than at first appears. China's State Statistical Bureau uses three distinct concepts when defining China's rural population. These have been translated into “rural,” “agricultural” and “countryside” definitions. A further complication is that the people included in each of these definitions has changed over time. As a result, data for China's rural population is ambiguous unless the user can determine which of the three definitions is being used and from which period.

Small Towns and China's Urbanization Level

China'sde jureurbanization level more than doubled in the five years between 1982 and 1987, jumping from 20.8 per cent to 46 6 per cent (Table 1). The Chinese State Statistical Bureau (SSB) officials explained that this unprecedented increase was largely the result of an increase in the number of urban towns since the mid 1984 relaxation of criteria for urban town designation.1 This is, however, only a partial explanation. My own analysis shows that much of the gain in the town population was in fact due to the post-1984 governing system of“town administering village” (zhen guan cun). Many newly designated urban towns (and some existing towns as well) have enlarged their administrative territories to include a huge number of agricultural residents in their official urban population. Most of these rural persons, however, judged by strict occupational and residential criteria, should not have been counted as urban population. The inclusion of many agricultural persons in the urban sector since mid 1984 has thus greatly exaggerated the actual urbanization level.2