PROVINCIAL DIFFERENCE OF URBANIZATION LEVEL IN TERMS OF POPULATION SINCE 2000: BASED ON EMENDATION OF STATISTICAL DATA

Based on the fifth census data (year 2000) and the 1% sampled data in the year 2005 this paper takes a couple of methods to emendate the statistical data of permanent population, urban population and urbanization level in terms of population from 2000 to 2005. The change of urbanization level since 2000 and the differences among provinces are studied. There are three conclusions: (1) the present statistical data may overestimate the total population and permanent population and underestimate the urban population and urbanization rate; (2) from 2000 to 2005, China’s urbanization rate increasingly grew with a 1.3 percentage per year on average; Meanwhile, the distribution of urban population and urbanization rate remained mostly unchanged, only some underdeveloped provinces showed high growth trend, which means that the gap of the urbanization level among provinces were getting smaller. The gap among regions with different policies is still growing. (3) The urbanization rate and GDP per capita present a logarithmic interrelation which is getting larger yearly.