Chongqing, China Population

One of the five central cities in China, Chongqing is the largest direct-controlled municipality in the country. The latest reports put the urban area’s total population at 15.8 million people, with its city area boasting 7.4 million people. This massive city is located in southwestern China in the Sichuan province and shares borders with the Shaanxi, Hunan, and Guizhou provinces.

The population of Chongqing may already dwarf many other cities in the world, but it is still expected to continue to grow. By 2035, it’s predicted there will be 20.5 people living in Chongqing’s urban area. By comparison, the entire country of Guatemala only has around 17 million people.

A rapidly expanding city

Chongqing’s growing population is not happening only by chance. It’s directly related to the Chinese government’s current “Go West” campaign. This campaign is based on the country’s wish to build up interior cities, such as Chongqing, through business and infrastructure development. It seems to be working since the GDP of Chongqing has quadrupled since the late 1990s. While China’s population has grown by an incredible 7.5% in the last decade, the city of Chongqing is facing some future issues.

An aging population

While many people see China’s population as ever-growing (and it certainly has grown exponentially), Chongqing and China are facing a huge population crisis in the future. China’s one-child policy combined with an aging population has meant that the country is facing an ever-shrinking workforce while their aging population balloons. By 2050, it’s predicted that 1/3 of China’s population will be over 60—and Chongqing is no different.

Chongqing also has the same gendered issue as most of China, in that they have too many men. Social pressures combined with modern medicine has meant that more boys than girls were born to mothers in China. This means that many men in Chongqing are unable to find partners.

A “foggy” city

If you visit Chongqing, you will notice the city’s modern architecture and bustling streets, but what you may also see are surgical masks. Many people in Chongqing wear surgical masks when they leave their homes, but this is not for fashion. Unfortunately, China’s booming industrial sector has contaminated the air with soot, carbon dioxide, and acid rain. This is worsened by the fact that Chongqing is a naturally foggy city contained between mountainous regions, contributing to further air quality issues. China’s rapid industrialization is making it one of the most polluted countries on earth and Chongqing continues to rank on the World Bank’s index of most polluted cities in the world.

Even as early as 2004, the World Bank showed data that residents of Chongqing were inhaling six times the amount of lung-cancer causing pollutants as the World Health Organization considers safe. However, the city has recently begun to make concerted efforts to go green and clean up their environment. In 2019, the city logged 316 in good or excellent air quality and has dropped six major air quality indexes.

An important economic center

The economy of Chongqing has rapidly developed in recent years to become one of the most important economic centers in western China. While it does have a diversified economy, Chongqing’s economy sits on the pillars of the manufacturing sector, with automotive manufacturing and electronic manufacturing accounting for more than 40% of the city’s industrial sector GDP.

This rapid expansion of the city’s economic power has meant that work is widely available to residents. There are over 13 million people employed in Chongqing, with 9.2 million working in private enterprises or as self-employed, and around 4 million working in state-owned enterprises. Both private and public enterprises continue to expand as the demand for manufactured goods—mostly encouraged by the western world—continues to grow.