List of cities in China by population
China is the world's most populous country. According to the Demographic research group in 2017, there are 102 Chinese cities with over 1 million people in the "urban area", as defined by the group's methodology.
Definition and classification
According to the administrative divisions of China, there are three levels of cities, namely direct-administered municipalities, prefecture-level cities, and county-level cities. The Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau and the areas controlled by the Republic of China are not included in this administrative classification.Municipalities and prefecture-level cities are not each a "city" in the strictest sense of the term, but instead an administrative unit comprising, typically, both an urban core and surrounding rural or less-urbanized areas usually many times the size of the central, built-up core.
Prefecture-level cities nearly always contain multiple counties, county-level cities, and other such sub-divisions. To distinguish a prefecture-level city from its actual urban area, the term "市区" is used. However, even this term often encompasses large suburban regions often greater than, sometimes only the urban core whereas the agglomeration overtake the city limits. Thus, the "urban core" would be roughly comparable to the American term "city limit", the "shì qū", or "urban area", would be roughly comparable to "metropolitan area", and the municipality is a political designation defining regions under control of a municipal government, which has no comparable designation.
List of major cities by population
The list contains all the cities with the administrative designation of "National Central City" and "Sub-Provincial City" – including five "Municipalities with Independent Planning Status" and ten large "Provincial Capital Cities", as well as some large "Special Economic Zones", "Open Coastal Cities" and "Prefecture-Level Cities".Urban Population
| Direct-Administered Municipality | |
| Municipality with Independent Planning Status | |
| Sub-Provincial City | |
| Prefecture-Level City |
N.B.: The source did not include Suzhou on the list. With 4,242,500 residents, Suzhou is the second largest city in Jiangsu Province, behind only Nanjing the capital city. If included, Suzhou could be 25th on the list, just ahead of Hefei, the capital city of Anhui Province.