The spatio‐temporal change of China's net floating population at county scale from 2000 to 2010

Abstract

China's total floating population exceeded 245 million at the end of 2013 and is the largest mobile population in the world. This paper explores the spatial distribution pattern and change characteristics of the net floating population at county scale from 2000 to 2010 using census data. The results show the following: (1) the net floating population increased by 120 million over 10 years, and the mobility of the population had enhanced in this period; (2) the floating population migrated to the three economic zones and provincial capital cities, while the traditional agricultural regions with dense populations experienced continuous outflow of population (which altered spatial agglomeration patterns); (3) eastern China has a high level of natural environment suitability and was a major destination area, but more pressures were placed on the carrying capacity of big cities; and (4) western China, with a relatively weak carrying capacity for resources and environment, was a net outflow region in 2010 – although five provinces had small‐scale net inflow because of western‐style development strategies. This study is offered as a contribution to understanding the features of China's floating population and will be useful for those shaping policies that guide population migration.

County-Scale Destination Migration Attractivity Measurement and Determinants Analysis: A Case Study of Guangdong Province, China

“…In areas with rapid economic development, the tertiary and secondary industries supply many jobs that need more laborers. Similarly to those of other studies [19,29,31,33,59,60], our findings show that the main driving force for migrants is the economic difference between origins and destinations. The greater the difference is, the more migrants move.…”

“…Thus, destination attractivity research is now important for policy making and regional development in China. Moreover, few studies have been carried out to find the migration patterns at the county scale [33]. In China, most provinces are vast and there are obvious differences inside provinces.…”

To Float or Not to Float? Internal Migration of Skilled Laborers in China

“…Failure to consider the heterogeneity between migrating agents could result in not being able to detect some important and interesting regularities. Some exceptions include [1,2,5,22]. Specifically, they examine the effect of age on the attached value to amenity, consistent with the finding of heterogeneity across the life course by [19].…”

“…Zhang et al [17] use data from a major recruitment platform and categorize hukou-origination cities into clusters according to their distinctive features driving human migration behavior. Most previous studies focus on hukou origination at province level [1,11,16,20,21]. However, in the context of China, cities could be quite different in various aspects even within a province.…”

“…As of the middle 2010s, there are about 250 million floating population in China, of which about 20% have college degrees [1][2][3][4]. The prominence of skilled floating population has attracted the attention of recent research [5,6].…”