Migrants restore population balance
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In response to the sharp increase seen during the past decade in the migrant population living in Shanghai, experts are calling for a reform of the policies used to manage population changes.
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According to the sixth national census, conducted in November last year, Shanghai now contains 23.02 million residents, who make up 1.72 percent of the mainland population. That figure was up from the year 2000, when the latest census said Shanghai was home to 1.32 percent of everyone living on the mainland.
The population statistic, which counts both those who have Shanghai hukou, or permanent residence permits, and migrants who have stayed in the city for more than six months but do not have hukou, increased by nearly 38 percent during the past decade. That means the population in Shanghai increased at a much faster rate than did the population in all of China, which rose by 5.8 percent during the same period.
Shanghai is now home to nearly 9 million migrants, making up 39 percent of the city's total residents. That population has risen by 159 percent since 2000, when 3.45 million migrants lived in the city, according to the Shanghai municipal statistics bureau.
"The city's fast economic growth and high quality of urban services draw an increasing number of people from other places to look for jobs in the city," said Ren Yuan, professor at the School of Social Development and Public Policy of Fudan University.
"The large number of migrants has actually made a great contribution to Shanghai's development and helped to curtail a labor shortage," he said. "On the other hand, the city has to cope with more difficulties resulting from the increasing population and fast changes."
Ren said the government should respond to the quick rise in the migrant population by adjusting its population policy and carrying out scientific urban planning.
