According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China's urbanization rate reached 52.6 percent in 2012. But some experts say that the figure doesn't reflect China’s true urbanization, since some people are considered "urbanized" or "half-urbanized." How should we understand urbanization in China?

Answered by: Hou Yongzhi

China's urbanization has entered a new phase, but there are still many questions about its level and quality. It's important to scientifically examine urbanization, as it influences judgments made on China's future economic growth potential, as well as infrastructure, city planning and social security decisions.

On the basis of thoroughly analyzing the current urbanization index, a research group has designed a model to determine the real urbanization rate. The method uses weighted urbanization measures. The urban population consists of some non-homogeneous groups, with different groups showing different levels of urbanization. A weighted urbanization rate can be possibly calculated if researchers give different weights to different groups. Researchers determine the weight of permanence for urban population by the two measures of public service and per capita disposable income and, based on that, arrive at two weighted urbanization rates and the quality of urbanization index. The calculation results show that China’s weighted urbanization rate is 8-11 percentage points lower than the National Bureau of Statistics figure. With the urban population growth expected to slow in the future, China must raise the level of public services and per capita disposable income to improve the real urbanization rate.