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1. Name:
Shanghai Municipality
2. Area:
6,340.5 square kilometers
3. Population:
16.74 million (the 2000 population census)
4. Geography:
Occupying the front edge of the Yangtze River Delta, Shanghai is located at latitude 31? 14' N and longitude 121? 29' E. Bordering on the East China Sea in the east, on the north by the Yangtze River, on the south by the Hangzhou Gulf, on the west it connected with Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces. With a marine monsoon subtropical climate, the weather in Shanghai is generally warm and humid.
5. Natural Resources:
Situated in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, Shanghai has abundant water resources, the total capacity of which per year amounts to 59,920,000,000 cubic meters and the underground water is of good quality. Shanghai is a highly populated area. In its suburban rural districts, land is fully cultivated and the percentage of the farming land out of the total is 61.1%, which is two times higher than the average ratio of 20% in the United States of America, whereas the area of cultivated farmland is only 0.38 mu (1 hectare = 15 mu) per capita.
6. Economy:
As a rather developed area, the value of Shanghai's total output in 2000 was 455.115 billion Yuan. Its gross value of industrial and agricultural outputs in the same year was 718.468 billion Yuan, of which the gross value of industrial output was 696.818 billion Yuan, and the value of agriculture output was 21.650 billion Yuan. The per capita gross product is 34,426 Yuan, which is higher than that of Beijing and Tianjin, the two other municipalities directly under the central government. Total food production was 1.74 million tons. The total revenue of the municipality was 175.270 billion Yuan. The handling capacity of Shanghai harbor is 20,440 million tons. As the total volume of import and export commodities was US$547.10 million.
7. Labour:
By the end of 2000, the total number of those employed in Shanghai was 8,283,500, of which 3,901,400 were staff and workers. Unemployment rate in urban areas of Shanghai was 3.5%. In 2000, the total wages of all state workers amounted to 614.53 million Yuan, and average per capita wage in that year was 15,420 Yuan. The Labor insurance and welfare funds for staff and workers were 614.53 million Yuan.
8. People's life:
In 2000, the average income of peasants per capita was 5,596 Yuan, which is higher than the levels of Beijing and Tianjing. The per capita annual disposable income of urban households was 11,718 Yuan. The per capita annual consumption spending of urban households 8,868 Yuan, while the per capita annual consumption expenditure of rural residents was 4,138 Yuan. The saving deposits of urban and rural residents 2,524.05 million Yuan. Housing in Shanghai has been in short supply for quite a long time compared with the situation in Tianjing and Beijing, although it has been improving recently. In 2000, the average living space for each inhabitant of Shanghai was 11.8 square meters in urban areas and 53.58 square meters in rural areas. The number of hospitals was 459, the number of doctors was 49,900 and the number of hospital beds was 73,100 hospital beds.
9. Education:
Toward the end of 2000, there were altogether 37 colleges and universities with students totaling 226,789 and staff and workers 60,799. Shanghai also has 861 regular secondary schools with 795,400 students and 76,600 teaching staff. Shanghai has 1,021 primary schools with 788,600 students and a teaching staff of 61,300. The attendance rate of school-age children was 99.99%.
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1. Size and Distribution
Being one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world, Shanghai has a large population size, the total being 16.74 million in 2000, occupying the fifth place among the 10 largest cities, next only to Mexico City, Tokyo, San Paulo, and New York. The population density of Shanghai is as high as 2,657/per sq.km on average. Since 1993, Shanghai has been the first region of China to have a negative fertility growth rate in its registered population, while the total number of registered people is increasing owing to in-migration. According to the 2000 population census, the rate of natural increase was -1.9 per 1,000. Besides, along with the urbanization and expansion of metropolitan regions, the urban population of Shanghai increased to 14,78 in 2000, accounting 88.31% to total population. Generally speaking, the trend is such that settlements of urban inhabitants are extending to suburban areas where rural inhabitants are also assembling on the border line of metropolitan areas.
2. Population History
In the past five decades, since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, the demographic trend of Shanghai can be divided into five phases:
Phase 1, 1949 - 1959, the booming period. The net increase in the population was 5,255,000, and the average annual increase rate was 74 per 1,000.
Phase 2, 1960 - 1968, the period of gradual increase. The net increase in those nine years was 806,000, with the average annual increase rate being 8.4 per 1,000.
Phase 3, 1969 - 1977, the period of shrinking. Altogether the population decreased by 225,000 in those nine years, the rate of decrease being 2.3 per 1,000 each year.
Phase 4, 1978 - 1990, the period of increase. The net increase during the 13 years was 1,969,000, with the annual rate of increase being 12.9 per 1,000.
Phase 5, 1991 - present, the period of low increase. The natural increase in Shanghai has entered the negative mode. In 2000, CBR was 5.30, the lowest in China, and RNI was -1.9 per 1,000, the only one negative growth in China.
3. Population Structure by Sex and Age
Marked changes took place in the sex ratio since 1949. In the 1950s, the sex ratio of the total population of Shanghai was as high as 118.6. Whereas in the 1970s and 1980s, the ratio decreased respectively to 98.4 and 98.6. The forth population census showed, in 1990, the sex ratio of the total population increased to 104.16. In 2000, the sex ratio of the total population was 105.74. In 2000, the population of Shanghai was characterized by aging, with the proportion of young persons
(0 - 14) shrinking to 12.19%, the lowest in the country while the proportion of persons aged 65 and over is 11.53%, the highest in the country. The proportion of person aged
15 - 65 is 76.28%.
4. Fertility Level and Changes
Shanghai authorities had begun to advocate family planning as early as the 1950s. After several decades of efforts, Shanghai currently has the lowest fertility rate in the country. To the end of 1989, the fertility of Shanghai was 10.2 per 1,000, that is lower than 21.8 per 1,000, the fertility for the country as a whole in the same year. In the same period, the general birth rate of Shanghai was only 41.48 per 1,000, lower than the 79.53 per 1,000, the average for the country as a whole in the same period. The total fertility rate of Shanghai is 1.33 children per woman, and it is much lower than the 2.25 mean level for the country as a whole at that time. By the early 1990s, Shanghai's fertility level declined below the replacement level, and negative growth started since 1993. In 2000, CBR was only 5.3 per 1,000, the natural growth rate being -1.9 per 1,000.
5. Mortality and Life Expectancy
Shanghai's mortality rate declined sharply after the founding of the People's Republic in 1949. It is reckoned that the mortality of the population before 1949 was around
25 - 39 per 1,000. In 1951, the mortality of Shanghai was 14.2 per 1,000, while in suburban counties the death rate of 19.7 per 1,000 is much higher, and especially the rate of infant mortality, which reached even as high as 83.93 per 1,000. Nevertheless, mortality dropped significantly to 6.1 per 1,000 or so during the period
1950 - 1960. Due to the development of health care for women and children by the Government, infant mortality decreased quickly to 29.72 per 1,000 in 1958. Generally, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the mortality of the population stabilized around
6.2 - 6.7 per 1,000. Accompanied by the trend of aging of the population, however, a gradual increase in mortality can be observed: the mortality rate in 1992 was 7.1 per 1,000; in the year 1997, it was 7.3 per 1,000. The 2000 population census showed the CDR was 7.2 per 1,000. The traditional U-curve of mortality of old Shanghai has made the transition to the modern mode with a J-curve and is developing.
At the early stage after liberation, the life expectancy of males was only 42.0 years and females 45.6. Later, however, there was a strong increase in life expectancy. By 1990, life expectancy at birth rose both for males and females to 73.7 and 77.8 years. Between 1990 and 1997, it increased for males by an additional 2.02 years and for females by 1.47 years. In 1997, life expectancy at birth was 75.7 for males and 79.2 for females, which levels are ahead of the mean level of the world as well as the levels of many median income countries and near the levels of some of the most developed countries.
6. Marriage Status, Family Size and Type
Between the early 1950s and 1980s, the mean age of first marriage in Shanghai was rising, from 20.79 years in the 1950s, 22.86 in the 1960s, 24.05 in the 1970s, to 25.60 in the 1980s. Then, an opposite tendency began: it declined continuously from 25.38 years in 1981, 24.37 in 1987, to 23.75 in 1990. The marriage rate in the 1980s reached 48.93 per 1,000, after which it began to decline. In 1992, the marriage rate was only 15.17%, which can neither be reckoned as the result of an increase of single men and women, nor postponed mean age of first marriage of the population.
Family size in Shanghai tended to become smaller for a time. In 1990, the average family size was 3.10 persons, while in 2000, it decreased to 2.80 persons per family, much lower than the national average, which was 3.44 persons per family. Shanghai's households in the metropolis are generally bigger than those in suburban counties. Three-generation stem families have proved to be quite stable, a phenomenon unlike the situation elsewhere in the country. Nuclear families occupy the largest share of the total, about 70.5%, of which 55.8 % consist of one couple with children and 14.69% only of husband and wife. Three-generation stem families account for 20.7% of the total. Currently, the decline of single-parent families has ceased and in 1997, the percentage of single-parent families was 8.8%.
7. Aging of the Population
Mainly because of the fertility decline and increase in life expectancy, Shanghai has become a society of the aged. In 2000, the age group of 65 and above totaled 1.93 million, and the percentage of those 65 and above was 11.53%, the highest level in China. The speed of aging of Shanghai not only has exceeded that of Germany, but also Japan, a rapidly aging country in recent years. According to a projection, after a period of sharp increase of the aged population in the 1990s, the course of aging in Shanghai during the twenty-first century would possibly consist of three stages. In stage 1, the first decade of the new century, the speed of aging might become stagnated, while in stage 2, the second and third decade of the new century, Shanghai would experience another period of sharp aging. Nevertheless, in stage 3, approximately 4 or 5 decades after stage 2, the proportion of the aged would gradually remain stable at the level of 20% or so.
The current population pyramid of Shanghai in terms of the aged presents a shape like a ladder, because of the existing larger proportion of the relatively younger old, which will gradually shrink as time passes. The pyramid is also characterized by the larger part being female than male, and in the older age groups, the sex ratio becoming lower. The larger part of the elderly population of Shanghai is distributed in urban areas. Two-thirds of the elderly persons have spouses, which is higher than the national average, owing to the lower rates of divorce and widowhood.
8. Population Quality
As a whole, the education level of Shanghai is quite high: the total educated population in the year 1990 reached 10,720,000, accounting for 78.5% of the total, which is higher than the mean level of the country but still lower than Beijing, Tianjing and Liaoning Province. In 1997, the figure increased to 91% and the illiteracy rate was 9.03%. In 1990, Shanghai inhabitants who had completed junior middle school made up 39.3% of the total population, holding the largest share. The persons who completed primary school ranked the second, amounting to 28.3% of the total and those who graduated from senior middle school ranked the third amounting to 24.3% of the total. In 2000, junior college and above graduates accounted for 11.34% to the population of age 6 and above, senior secondary/secondary technical school graduates was 23.87% to age 6 and above, and primary school graduates also declined to 19.67%. An imbalance according to sex can be observed in all the above-mentioned groups classified by education levels: i.e. the share of males is larger than females. Besides, generally, urban areas have a larger percentage of educated people than rural areas do, and primary school graduates and illiterates constitute a larger share among the aged than in any other age groups of Shanghai.
9. Migration and the Floating Population
There were once sharp rises and falls in the population caused by migration throughout the period from 1949, the establishment of the People's Republic, to the year 1980. Since then, the migration rates have tended to be stable with a constantly larger in-migration than out-migration rate, and the wave motions were much less obvious than those of the prior period, with an average net in-migration figure of 39,800 each year. The main determinants for those moves are job transfer, education, and technical training. A very high sex ratio can be observed in immigrants from other provinces, and sometimes the number of males could be twice that of females, which will definitely have a continuing effect on the sex ratio of the future population of Shanghai. The net migration, i.e. the number of immigrants minus emigrants, in 1997 amounted to 47,500, and the percentage increase caused by immigration was 3.6 per 1,000.
Additionally, the size of the floating population of Shanghai is expanding. Based on a survey conducted on October 20, 1998, the total "drifting population without household registration in Shanghai Municipality had reached 1,246,000, among which 1,058,000 were moving from neighboring provinces and foreign countries and all the others from suburban counties. In 1997, economic activities, such as laboring, business affairs, etc., were explained to be the major reasons for in-migration, amounting to 67.5% of the total, and non-economic activities, such as visiting relatives, marriage tours, and tourism, amount to 22.9% of the total. The rest, about 4.4% of the total, were involved with cultural activities, such as technical training and all kinds of meetings. Moreover, international migration in Shanghai now runs at the highest level in China.
10.Population, Resources and the Environment
Despite some advantages, such as rich water resources, Shanghai has a favorable geographic location; however, Shanghai faces disadvantages like soil and water pollution, caused by very high population and industrial density. The environmental problems have been viewed as a key issues for the social and economic development of Shanghai. A thorough environmental protection project is under implementation by the local Government, and, according to one prediction, the pollution of Shanghai would be possibly controlled by 2000, and the ecological environment will be significantly improved until the year of 2020.
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Since the middle of the 1950s, when the first family program started, until now, family planning in Shanghai can be divided into five stages: preparation stage, pilot stage, spreading stage, developing stage, and further improvement stage.
Preparation Stage (1954 - 1961)
In 1954, in accordance with guidance from the Central Government of China, the public health authorities of Shanghai required that family planning clinics be established in all hospitals and medical units of Shanghai having a department of obstetrics and gynecology. The State-owned medicine companies were made responsible for the supply of contraceptives needed. Hospitals and clinics were required to provide related knowledge and technical guidance. Up to 1957, the numbers of pilot clinics specializing in birth control knowledge dissemination were set up. A technical guidance committee was organized by the Public Health Authority of Shanghai to provide guidance for users of 159 newly established clinics around the municipality.
But the family planning movement suffered a setback soon after its launch.
The Pilot Stage (1962 - 1969)
In March 1962, the Shanghai Municipality agreed with "A Request to Further Promote Family Planning Movement" by the Municipal Women's Federation, and Labor Union, and several work units were chosen by the Women's Federation and Labor Union of Shanghai Municipality as the pilot units for family planning implementation. In April 1963, the Family Planning Committee was established at the municipality as well as county level in the suburbs. Another document, "Situations of Family Planning in Rural Areas: Suggestions", was approved by the Municipality, and since then, late marriage was advocated in Shanghai. Late marriage was defined as occurring at the age of 25 for males and 23 for females. In 1964, a leading group was organized especially to develop contraceptives. It was not until 1964 that the continued decrease in the fertility and natural increase rates came into being. Until 1967, Shanghai's fertility was 12.54 per 1,000, and the natural increase rate was 7.45, which means that the population explosion eventually was coming under control.
But during the period of the "Cultural Revolution", the family planning program was suspended for some time. As a result, the fertility of Shanghai rose again.
Spreading Stage (1970 - 1978)
In January 1971, the Fourth Congress of the Shanghai Municipality put forward a suggestion: "To Improve Family Planning and Advocate Late Marriage". In September 1975, the standing committee of the Shanghai Municipality agreed to organize a research office on demographic issues and contraceptives, after rounds of discussions. A Family Planning Leading Group had been established in 1973 with a subordinate family planning office network at the levels of district, county, and working units all around Shanghai. Volunteer Teams, as large as 200,000 persons in total, were organized to spread family planning technical knowledge and contraceptive tools to each households. Considerable achievements were reached: for seven years running, from 1972 to 1978, Shanghai's fertility stabilized at about 10 per 1,000 with the natural increase rate being 5 per 1,000.
Developing Stage (1979 - 1987)
In August 1981, Shanghai Municipality revised and reissued its "Family Planning Regulation" with some additional contents about healthy child bearing, to advocate the single child policy. Also in this period, demographic research institutions and offices were established within the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, colleges and universities, and mass organizations like population societies or family planning associations were organized. The first school for newly married couples was set up by the Shanghai Family Planning Technical Guiding Office and Shanghai Family Planning Association in September 1985 to popularize knowledge about sexual physiology, contraception, child bearing and rearing. Throughout the period, the average birth rate was 15.33 per 1,000, and the natural increase rate 8.83 per 1,000.
Improvement Stage (1988 - present)
The 16th session of Ninth People's Congress reviewed and approved "Family Planning Regulations of Shanghai" and, in the same year, the Shanghai Municipal Authority issued "Detailed Regulations on Family Planning". In 1991, after the promulgation of "Family Planning Regulations for the Drifting (Floating) Population", the child-bearing age group of the drifting population was surveyed by township, residential district under each district and suburb county of Shanghai, to find out the detailed situation of the group. For instance, it included information on the size of the population, their habitation, employment, contraceptive usage, and so on. The results showed that the contraceptive prevalence rate of the population in 1993 had reached more than 80%.
To adapt the needs of the population, and requests from the masses, an education campaign on reproductive health was launched in 1993. Within the following year, the total number of people educated reached 2,540,000. In the year 2000, according to statistics, the acceptance rate of only-child certificates was 45.29%, the rate of late marriage 63.71%, the rate of family planning 95.91%, and contraceptive prevalence rate 90.96%.
After unremitting efforts of more than 40 years, significant achievements have been made. The attitude of the people toward marriage and reproduction has greatly changed, from a former view emphasizing early marriage and early child bearing and more children meaning more happiness, people's attitudes have changed to late marriage late and child bearing, and fewer and better births. The population boom has been controlled as indicated by the sharp decrease in fertility from 40.20 per 1,000 in the 1950s, to 6.5 per 1,000 in 1993, and to a further decreased rate of 4.9 per 1,000 in 1997. The natural increase rate has declined from 32.10 per 1,000 in the 1950s, 0.78 per 1,000 in 1993, -2.4 per 1,000 in 1997 to -1.9 per 1,000 in 2000. The total fertility rate also significantly declined from 4.75 in 1950 to an average rate of 1.12 in the 1990s; the rate in 1997 was even as low as 0.91. In the meantime, the quality of the population in the sense of both education and health has been greatly improved, which will certainly promote the social and economic development of Shanghai.
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