Statistical Methodologies Used to Calculate Urbanization Rates in China  

作　　者：Shi Jie Zhang Yingxuan Hu Dan Cao Huili 

机构地区：[1]Regional Research Institute, China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Beijing 100044, China [2]State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China [3]YaTai DuHui Urban Planning and Design Research Institute, Beijing 100025, China

出　　处：《Chinese Journal of Population,Resources and Environment》2010年第3期89-96,共8页中国人口·资源与环境（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant no. 2005CB724206);the project of Master Plan of Yutian xian 2003–2020

摘　　要：To analyze China’s actual urbanization level, we iden- tified 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 "infrastructurebased" 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.To analyze China’s actual urbanization level, we iden- tified 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 ＂infrastructurebased＂ 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.

关 键 词：urban population scope of urban population statistics urbanization level CENSUS 

分 类 号：TU984.2[建筑科学—城市规划与设计] O212[理学—概率论与数理统计]