China's urbanization rate to further boom

BEIJING - China's population urbanization rate, which reached 51 percent in 2011, will further climb to near 60 percent by 2020, bringing the country's urban population to around 850 million, according to a report distributed at the Symposium on Demographic Challenges and Social Cohesion on Thursday.

Sponsored by the China Population and Development Research Center, the report noted that China reached a historic point in 2011, as the number of people living in the nation's urban areas passed the number living in its rural ones.

In the next 20 years, China's urbanization will maintain a fast speed, with around 300 million people moving from rural to urban areas, according to the authors.

China's urbanization will enter a stable stage by the middle of the 21st century, with the peak value between 70 percent to 75 percent, it said.

In 2011, the number of migrant workers in China reached 230 million, the report noted, adding annual growth of the migrant population will be around 10 million in the 12th Five Year Plan period (2011-2015).

The publication urged efforts to provide migrants, mostly farmer-turned workers without equal access to urban public services, with social security and improved living conditions.