Sunday, October 20, 2013

Numbers on China's Urbanization

From a letter to the editor titled "China's rapid urbanization" in last week's issue (sub required) of Science:
"Between 1980 and 2012, China's urbanization increased from 19.4 to 52.6%.

"By 2012, 262 million people had migrated to urban areas.

"The number of rural children left behind [by men migrating to cities to look for work] increased from 22 million in 2004 to 58 million in  2010, and the women and aging parents left behind have reached more than 47 million and 40 million, respectively.

"These three groups now account for more than 22% of China’s total rural population

"Of the 16,928 species that are threatened with extinction worldwide, almost 800 are in China; 25% of China’s species are endangered, and 233 vertebrate animal species are facing extinction."

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