IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v39y2002i12p2237-2250.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

China's Floating Population: Definitions, Data and Recent Findings

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Goodkind

    (International Programs Center, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington Plaza , Room 117, Washington, DC 20233-8860, USA, Daniel.M.Goodkind@census.gov)

  • Loraine A. West

    (International Programs Center, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Washington Plaza , Room 117, Washington, DC 20233-8860, USA, Lwest@census.gov)

Abstract

Among migrants in China, one of the most difficult groups to define and measure is that referred to as the floating population ( liudong renkou ), a rapidly growing population concentrated largely in urban areas. But who belongs to this floating population? Although this term conjures up images of unsettled persons lacking permanent residence, it is often used ambiguously or denotes distinctly different groups of people. This paper discusses these ambiguities and identifies a variety of definitions that we think are pertinent. The clarification of these definitions leads to a discussion of major sources of data (censuses, migration surveys and household registration lists). Along the way, we review some key empirical findings on China's floating population. We also discuss factors that have affected recent trends and are likely to affect future trends in migration and the floating population.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Goodkind & Loraine A. West, 2002. "China's Floating Population: Definitions, Data and Recent Findings," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(12), pages 2237-2250, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:39:y:2002:i:12:p:2237-2250
    DOI: 10.1080/0042098022000033845
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/0042098022000033845
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0042098022000033845?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Knight, J & Song, L, 1997. "Chinese Peasant Choices : Farming, Rural Industry or Migration," Economics Series Working Papers 99188, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Richard L. Forstall & Richard P. Greene & James B. Pick, 2009. "Which Are The Largest? Why Lists Of Major Urban Areas Vary So Greatly," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 100(3), pages 277-297, July.
    2. Shukui Tan & Yanan Li & Yan Song & Xiang Luo & Min Zhou & Lu Zhang & Bing Kuang, 2017. "Influence factors on settlement intention for floating population in urban area: a China study," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 51(1), pages 147-176, January.
    3. Shuming Bao & Örn B. Bodvarsson & Jack W. Hou & Yaohui Zhao, 2011. "The Regulation Of Migration In A Transition Economy: China'S Hukou System," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 29(4), pages 564-579, October.
    4. Massimiliano Tani, 2017. "Hukou Changes and Subjective Well-Being in China," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 47-61, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. John Knight & Linda Yueh, 2004. "Urban Insiders versus Rural Outsiders: Complementarity or Competition in China`s Urban Labour Market?," Economics Series Working Papers 217, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    2. Maëlys de La Rupelle & Deng Quheng & Li Shi & Thomas Vendryes, 2009. "Land rights insecurity and temporary migration in rural China," Working Papers halshs-00575041, HAL.
    3. Avato, Johanna, 2009. "Migration pressures and immigration policies : new evidence on the selection of migrants," Social Protection Discussion Papers and Notes 52449, The World Bank.
    4. Yanqiao Zheng & Xiaoqi Zhang & Qiwen Dai & Xing Zhang, 2020. "To Float or Not to Float? Internal Migration of Skilled Laborers in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-15, December.
    5. Qingjie Xia & Colin Simmons, 2004. "The Determinants of Labour-time Allocation between Farm and Off-farm Work in Rural China: the Case of Liaoning Province," Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(2), pages 169-184.
    6. Terry Sicular & Yaohui Zhao, 2002. "Earnings and Labor Mobility in Rural China: Implications for China's WTO Entry," University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute Working Papers 20028, University of Western Ontario, Economic Policy Research Institute.
    7. Zhang, Xiaobo & Li, Guo, 2003. "Does guanxi matter to nonfarm employment?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 315-331, June.
    8. Xia, Qingjie & Simmons, Colin, 2004. "Diversify and prosper: Peasant households participating in emerging markets in northeast rural China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 375-397.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:39:y:2002:i:12:p:2237-2250. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.