Statistical Methodologies Used to Calculate Urbanization Rates in China

To analyze China's actual urbanization level, we identified two statistical approaches: using the population living within the administrative boundaries ("administrative-based" method) and within the urbanized or built-up areas ("infrastructure-based" method) of cities and towns as urban population. To illustrate the two approaches and the associated problems, we used data for Tangshan City as a case study. The estimates on the "administrative-based" method were unreliable and the "infrastructure-based" method provided a 29.4% urbanization rate for Tangshan City in 2002, which is lower than the mean of 36.1% for China as a whole published after the fifth national census in 2000. Given the city's geographic location, comprehensive urban construction and economic development indicators, its urbanization rate should be higher than the average level. Thus, our results indicate that the value of 36.1 % was higher than the actual status as a result of poor statistical quality and overestimation of the floating population.