China has 740 million living in cities now, 840 million in 2020 and possibly 1 billion in 2030

China currently has about 54% (740 million)of the Chinese population living in cities. China has six megacities of more than 10 million inhabitants and 103 cities of more than one million inhabitants. This presents China with a unique set of urban challenges that rapidly need to be addressed to ensure that these cities remain liveable, productive and sustainable. China’s urbanization rate is slated to grow to 60% by 2018, two years earlier than initially forecast, the need to address these urban challenges is all the more pressing.

It is estimated that China will continue its massive urban expansion at an estimated speed of 1% each year.
(China State Council, 2014). This would be 72% urbanization by 2030 and this could be 1 billion people if China’s population is 1.4 billion or more.

China’s Hukou reform plans to get 100 million more official residents into China’s cities by 2020 are taking shape. The new reforms are remarkably liberal on urbanization in China’s small and medium-sized cities, removing the hukou requirement entirely. Small cities will additionally have no limits on the number of new settlers.

Hukou reform could still run into trouble. A survey by the Sichuan province bureau of statistics, published last week, found that 90% of migrant workers don’t even want an urban hukou.

For many, the benefits of better health care and being able to bring their children with them don’t outweigh the perks of rural residency, which include a guaranteed (though generally very small) allocation of agricultural land, the survey found.

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