Provincial variation of urbanization and urban primacy in China

Compared to other developing countries, China has a low urbanization level as a result of government policy to control urban development since 1949. However, there is much regional variation in urbanization and urban primacy among its 26 provinces. This paper attempts to analyze the provincial variation in urbanization and urban primacy of China in 1978 by factor analysis and regression techniques. In China, government policy does not only slow down the overall rate of urbanization but also has profound influence on provincial variation in urbanization and urban primacy. Low urban primacy in the eastern provinces is mainly the result of the urbanization policy of controlling the development of large cities that favours the development of small and medium cities. The spatial industrial policy of decentralizing industries from the coastal provinces to interior provinces encouraged high urbanization and urban primacy in the western interior provinces of China.This paper was developed while Xueqiang Xu was a Visiting Scholar of the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning in 1982–83.