Breed Like Rabbits?
Shanghai Population Swells to 20 Million
Fri Dec 5, 8:06 AM ET
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By ELAINE KURTENBACH, Associated Press Writer
SHANGHAI, China - China's biggest city has gotten even bigger.
Shanghai's population has surged to more than 20 million people, soaring by 3 million over the past year amid a flood of job seekers from other parts of China, the city government said Friday.
The influx of people into what already was one of the world's most crowded cities has left roads and subways jammed. Housing prices have soared.
The shift has been hastened by a loosening of restrictions that require Chinese to get official permission to move from one place to another. Until recently, the rules made it nearly impossible for rural people to move into cities.
Shanghai is a magnet for job seekers, with China's highest annual incomes at an average of about $5,000 per person and economic growth even higher than the national figure of about 8 percent a year.
Out of Shanghai's total population, only 13.5 million people are considered permanent residents of the city, a city government spokesman said.
Another 4 million people live in Shanghai permanently but are not officially registered here, said the spokesman, who would give only his surname, Chen. Some 3 million more are part of the "floating population" — the army of tens of millions of rural migrants who have left the countryside to seek work in the cities.
Mayor Han Zheng, speaking at a conference of Asian leaders, said creating new jobs for the swelling population was the top priority for China's business capital, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily reported.
More than 400,000 new jobs were created in Shanghai this year, the newspaper said. It said the city suffered job losses as state firms cut 300,000 jobs amid wrenching economic reforms.
Officially, Shanghai's unemployment rate is 5 percent, or more than 300,000 people, the newspaper said. But it noted that this figure doesn't include many laid-off workers and those not actively seeking work.
Han, the mayor, was quoted as saying the city plans to take steps to rein in soaring real estate prices and create more affordable housing.
Although the Shanghai skyline is a forest of new high-rises, many are priced far beyond the reach of most residents.
Other major Chinese cities also have experienced similar stunning growth as farm dwellers look for work in cities.
China's second-biggest city is Chongqing in the southwest, with more than 15 million people in its urban areas.
The national capital, Beijing, has more than 14 million people. |
