City sees a slowdown in population growth

Shanghai's population grew at an average annual rate of 0.8 percent between 2010 and 2020, according to data from last year’s census. 

Growth in the past decade was at a slower pace compared with the 2000-2010 period, Zhu Min, director of the city’s statistics bureau, said on Tuesday.

The census put the population at around 24.87 million, up 1.8517 million, or 8 percent, from 2010.

The average annual growth rate in the 2000-2010 period was 3.4 percent.

Compared with data in the previous two censuses, growth had been relatively steady in the last 10-year round, Zhu said, consistent with implementation of the state requirement to control the size of populations in megacities.

It was also in tune with the targets of policies and measures related to overall population and industrial development, urban layout, public services and social management, he added.

Zhu said Shanghai’s attraction for migration remains strong, a major factor in the continued increase in the population.

The number of residents from other provinces and cities was 10.48 million, or 42.1 percent of the total.

The education level of residents grew rapidly over the decade, with the 33,872 people among 100,000 going to college compared with 21,893 in 2010.

Some 46.4 percent of the working-age population (16 to 59) were college educated, up 20.2 percentage points from 2010.

“This change was quite obvious, which was closely related to the great emphasis on and vigorous development of higher education in Shanghai, as well as the general improvement of national education levels,” Zhu said.

The number of residents aged 60 or above reached 5.8155 million in 2020, 23.4 percent of the total and 8.3 percentage points higher than in 2010.

That included over 4 million people aged 65 or older, or 16.3 percent of the total population.

“The trend of Shanghai’s population age structure was in line with that of the whole country, in which the proportion of children has increased, while the population aging has further deepened,” Zhu said.

The women to men ratio of the city’s population rose to 107.33, up 1.14 from 2010.

The number of residents living in the central urban area of the city accounted for 26.9 percent of the total, down 3.4 percentage points. This was “a positive result of the city’s polities on optimizing urban layout, public services and social management,” according to Zhu .

The population of ethnic minority groups soared 44.8 percent from 2010 to 399,800, while that of Han people grew 7.6 percent to 24.4711 million, accounting for 98.4 percent of the total.