Demographics of Beijing

The registered population of Beijing Municipality consists of people holding either Beijing permanent residence hukou permits or temporary residence permits. The 2010 census revealed that the official total population in Beijing was 19,612,368,^[1] representing a 44% increase over the last decade.^[2] In 2006, the population of the urban core was 13.33 million, 84.3 percent of the total municipal population, which officially stood at 15.81 million.^[3]Urban sprawl continues at a rapid pace.^[4]

After Chongqing and Shanghai,^[1] Beijing is the third largest of the four directly controlled municipalities of the People's Republic of China. In the PRC, a directly controlled municipality (直辖市 in pinyin: zhíxiáshì) is a city with status equal to a province. Even though Chongqing is the most populous municipality, it has a larger land area than either Beijing or Shanghai and includes many rural areas; Brittany Hite of The Wall Street Journal stated that Chongqing "is more akin to a small province than a city."^[5]

According to the statistical yearbook issued in 2005 by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, out of a total population in 2004 of 14.213 million in Beijing, 1.415 million (9.96%) were 0–14 years old, 11.217 million (78.92%) were 15–64 and 1.581 million (11.12%) 65 and over.^[6]

As of 2014, the population of Beijing almost equalled that of Australia.^[5]

La mayoría de los residentes de Beijing pertenecen a la mayoría china Han . Las minorías étnicas incluyen a los manchúes , hui y mongoles . ^{[ 7 ]} Según el Censo Nacional de 2010, había 18.811.000 chinos Han en Beijing junto con 336.000 manchúes, 249.000 hui, 77.000 mongoles, 37.000 coreanos y 24.000 tujia, que forman las minorías más grandes. ^{[ 8 ]} Hay un área de minoría étnica en el condado de Miyun, el Área Manchú y Mongol de Tanying. Existe una escuela secundaria en idioma tibetano para jóvenes de ascendencia tibetana, casi todos los cuales han venido a Beijing desde el Tíbet expresamente para sus estudios. ^{[ 9 ]} Una considerable comunidad internacional reside en Beijing, muchos atraídos por el sector de negocios y comercio exterior en rápido crecimiento, otros por la cultura tradicional y moderna de la ciudad. Muchos de estos extranjeros viven en las zonas aledañas al distrito financiero central de Pekín, Sanlitun y Wudaokou . En los últimos años, también se ha producido una afluencia de surcoreanos , aproximadamente 200.000 en 2009, ^{[ 10 ]} principalmente por motivos de negocios y estudios. Muchos de ellos viven en las zonas de Wangjing y Wudaokou . ^{[ 11 ] [ 12 ]}

Nimrod Baranovitch, autor de «Exilio invertido: escritores y artistas uigures en Pekín y las implicaciones políticas de su obra», afirmó que el número real de uigures en Pekín es mayor que el recuento oficial porque las estadísticas oficiales no «incluyen a la población flotante». ^{[ 14 ]} Baranovitch declaró que informantes le dijeron que había 10 000 uigures en 2001 y 13 000 uigures en 2005, pero no pudo verificar las cifras. ^{[ 14 ]}

Rural migrant workers come to Beijing from all over China. Many move to settlements depending on their origins. For instance by 1997 many Zhejiang province migrant workers moved to Zhejiangcun in Fengtai District and many Henan province migrant workers moved to Henancun (C: 河南村, P: Hénán-cūn) in Haidian District. As of 1993, of the rural migrants in Beijing, 20.2% originated in Hebei, 17.0% originated in Henan, 14.2% originated in Anhui, 11.3% originated in Jiangsu, 10.6% originated in Zhejiang, 7.8% originated in Sichuan, 2.1% originated in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, and 16.7% originated in other provinces.^[15]

Due to China's rapid economic growth, 8.2 million people migrated from rural China to Beijing (2015), but unable to secure official residency status, many rural immigrants settled in dilapidated inner city buildings and increasingly turned to constructing their own housing illegally.^[16] Following a fire in a building housing migrant workers on 18 November 2017, Beijing city officials commenced a 40-day campaign to demolish buildings deemed unsafe.^[17] As a result, many migrant workers were displaced, with some of them forced to return to their home provinces.^[18] The campaign drew considerable criticism. For example, a petitioned signed by more than 100 Beijing intellectuals denounced the campaign as a "violation of human rights."^[19] Remarkably, China's primary state broadcaster, CCTV, also published commentary criticizing the government's actions.^[20] Amid the public mounting public criticism, Beijing's party chief Cai Qi visited migrant workers and called on employers to be more cognizant of migrant workers's wellbeing.^[21]

• Demographics of China
• Migration in China

• Liu, Xiaoli and Liang Wei, 1997. "Zhejiangcun: social and spatial implications of informal urbanization on the periphery of Beijing." Cities 14 (2), 95–108.