Society

Survey: First-tier cities still residents' first choice

By Jia Xu (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-06-18 15:22
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A survey targeting 3,262 Chinese living in cities or counties showed that 45.7 percent prefer to live in first-tier cities, the China Business News reported Friday.

The percentage among people who live in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou is as high as 97 percent, according to the survey conducted by China's Horizon Research Consultancy Group.

When rural residents were asked whether they prefer to work in townships or cities, 55.5 percent said yes, while only 38.9 percent of them said they would rather stay in small villages.

More than 66.9 percent of rural residents believe they would live better if they were born in major cities, and such assumptions were seen more among youths of 18 to 30s, 77.2 percent of whom agreed on this point.

A prediction from McKinney & Co Consulting Group said by the end of 2025 China would have over one billion people living in urban cities. Eight major Chinese cities will exceed a population of 10 million. Those cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Chengdu.

Estimated figures show that the GDP contributions of the eight cities will take up 95 percent of China's overall GDP growth, compared with the present 75 percent, according to the report.