Land use in China
China has four times the population of the U.S., within roughly the same area. With 1.3 billion inhabitants, 20% of the world’s population lives in China. While the rate of population growth has been declining for decades, the total number of inhabitants has been growing and is expected to do so through 2030. China’s urban population is growing rapidly; between 1950 and 2009, the percentage of the population living in urban areas quadrupled from 14% to 48%. Meanwhile, the rural population is declining, opening the landscape in areas that are not urbanized. The forests and farming land of eastern China support far more people and major cities than do the grasslands, deserts, and high mountain regions of the west.
Geography of China
The people of China are beginning to move from the rural farming areas to the business centered cities. The rate of urbanization from 2015 to 2018 is at a 2.42% annual rate of change. China currently has an urban population of 59.3%. The most populated urban areas are: Shanghai 25.582 million, Tianjin 13.215 million, Guangdong 12.683 million, 19.618 million Beijing (capital), 11.908 million Shenzhen, 14.838 million Chongqing.