Benefits of hukou reform outweigh costs

Reform of the hukou, or household registration system, made great progress during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period, as over 13 million people were officially admitted as urban residents. However, more still needs to be done as a growing number of people are living in cities without being regarded as residents.

In 2010, 35 percent of Chinese residents had an urban household registration, or hukou, while about 50 percent of the population resided in cities. In 2014, 54.7 percent of the population resided in cities, 36 percent of Chinese residents had an urban hukou.

The top leadership has, via several official documents, made clear its determination to comprehensively reform the hukou system in the coming years.