According to municipal and provincial 2023 year-end statistical communiqués, at the end of 2023, the country had a total of 16 cities with more than 10 million permanent residents, the so-called “megacities.”

These megacities are concentrated in three main clusters: the Yangtze River Delta (Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou), the Pearl River Delta (Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan) and Jing-Jin-Ji (Beijing, Tianjin and Shijiazhuang). There are additional giants in the interior—Chengdu (Sichuan), Wuhan (Hubei), Xi’an (Shaanxi), Zhengzhou (Henan), Qingdao (Shandong) and Changsha (Hunan).

China’s large number of highly populous cities concentrates talent, capital and infrastructure, boosting productivity and innovation. These urban concentrations create market scale for services and advanced manufacturing, reinforcing global trade and investment linkages. 

China’s urban population surpassed its rural population for the first time in 2011, marking a significant milestone in socio-economic development. In 2024, the country’s urbanisation rate stood at 67%, still relatively low compared to developed economies, e.g., South Korea (82%), the U.S. (83%) and Japan (91%).

This indicates the potential for the continued rapid expansion of China’s urban centres in the coming years. China has one of the world’s fastest urbanisation rates, and by current estimates, it could reach 80% urbanisation by around 2045.  

No other country in the world comes close to China’s total of 16 megacities, although urban populations can be calculated differently depending on how a city is defined. China’s most populous cities (e.g., Chongqing) are large administrative units that can include rural counties; that’s why cross-country city-proper comparisons differ from metro/urban-agglomeration lists.

On an urban-agglomeration basis, global peers by scale include Tokyo (37.8 million), Jakarta (35.4 million), Delhi (31.2 million) and Mumbai (25.2 million). Among the world’s 100 most populous built-up areas (with populations in excess of 5 million) in 2023, 23 cities were located in China, compared to 11 in the U.S. and 9 in India (Demographia, World Urban Areas 2023).