Update on Urbanization in China

China has several multi-billion dollar city development projects.

Nanhui New City plans to attract 800,000 residents and reportedly cost $4.5 billion.


Nanhui city illustration

Established in April 2017, Xiongan New Area is a redevelopment project planned for Hebei, China. Initially, the city will cover nearly 40 square miles, but eventually it will reach about 80 square miles — over three times the size of Manhattan. Xiongan will take 15 years to build and will have 4.5 million people. Xiongan has $290 billion in funding.

The percentage of population living in urban areas was 56.1% in April, 2016, with a target rate of 60% by 2020. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, migrant workers comprised 19.76% of China’s total population in 2013, while urban residents comprised 35.7% of the total population. The target is to help 100 million migrant workers obtain an urban hukou by 2020.

In the first quarter of 2017, the national per capita disposable income was 7,184 yuan, a nominal growth of 8.5 percent year on year or a real growth of 7.0 percent after deducting price factors. The growth rate of income was 0.1 percentage point higher than that of GDP. In terms of usual residence, the per capita disposable income of the urban residents was 9,986 yuan, a real growth of 6.3 percent after deducting price factors. The per capita disposable income of the rural residents was 3,880 yuan, up by 7.2 percent in real terms. The per capita income of the urban residents was 2.57 times of that of the rural residents, 0.02 less than the same period last year. The median of the national per capita disposable income was 6,067 yuan, a nominal increase of 6.7 percent. The per capita expenditure nationwide was 4,796 yuan, a nominal increase of 7.7 percent, or 6.2 percent after deducting price factors. By the end of February, the number of rural migrant workers was 172.53 million, which was 4.54 million more than the same period last year, or up by 2.7 percent. The monthly income of migrant workers was 3,482 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.4 percent.