List of cities in China by population

As of 2023, the five largest cities in China by population are Chongqing (31.91 million), Shanghai (24.87 million), Beijing (21.86 million) , Chengdu (21.403 million) and Guangzhou (18.827 million).^[1]^[2]^[3] As of 2021, there are 17 megacities^[4]^[5] (cities with a population of over 10 million), including Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Xi'an, Suzhou, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Linyi, Shijiazhuang, Dongguan, Qingdao and Changsha.^[6]

Among them, the total permanent population of Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing and Chengdu is above 20 million.^[7] Shanghai is China's most populous urban area,^[8]^[9] while Chongqing is its largest city proper, the only city in China with the largest permanent population of over 30 million.^[10]

As of 2020, there were 113 Chinese cities with over 1 million people in urban areas.^[11]

Definition and classification

According to the administrative divisions of China, there are three major levels of cities, namely direct-administered municipalities (直辖市), prefecture-level cities (地级市), and county-level cities (县级市). Not included in this administrative classification list are the special administrative regions (特别行政区) of Hong Kong and Macau as well as the cities controlled by the Republic of China. Prefecture-level cities nearly always contain multiple counties (县), county-level cities, and other such sub-divisions.

Municipalities and prefecture-level cities are not each a 'city' in the strictest sense of the term, but are, instead, an administrative unit comprising, typically, both the urban core (a city in the strict sense) and surrounding rural or less-urbanized areas.^[12] The term "市区" (shì qū; "urban area") is used to distinguish a city's actual urban center from its administratively defined boundaries. However, even this term often encompasses large suburban regions, often greater than 3,000 square kilometres (1,000 sq mi), or sometimes only the urban core, whereas the agglomeration overtakes the city limits. Thus, the "urban core" would be roughly comparable to the American term "city limit", and the "shì qū", or "urban area", would be roughly comparable to a city's "metropolitan area." The municipality is a political designation defining regions under control of a municipal government, which has no comparable designation in America.

While in 2013 Chongqing had the largest population total of any special municipality, 28 million, only 4.5 million of the people were in the actual Chongqing urban area, with the remainder of the population in suburban and rural areas.^[13]

List of major cities by population

The list contains all the cities with the administrative designation of "national central city" (国家中心城市) and "sub-provincial city" (副省级城市) – including five "cities with independent planning status" (计划单列市) and ten large "provincial capital cities" (省会城市), as well as some large "special economic zones" (经济特区城市), "open coastal cities" (沿海开放城市), and "prefecture-level cities" (地级市).^[14] This list defines a city's population as the population of a city's urban population, rather than the entire population of its municipal boundaries.

	Direct-Administered Municipality
	City with Independent Planning Status
	Sub-Provincial City
	Prefecture-Level City

City	Province	2020 Census^[15]	2010 Census^[16]	% change
Shanghai^#*	—	21,909,814	20,217,748	+8.37%
Beijing^⍟#	—	18,960,744	16,704,306	+13.51%
Shenzhen^#~	Guangdong	17,444,609	10,358,381	+68.41%
Guangzhou^#*	Guangdong	16,096,724	10,641,408	+51.26%
Chengdu^#*	Sichuan	13,568,357	7,791,692	+74.14%
Tianjin^#†	—	11,052,404	9,528,277	+16.00%
Wuhan^#*	Hubei	10,494,879	7,541,527	+39.16%
Dongguan	Guangdong	9,644,871	7,271,322	+32.64%
Chongqing^#*	—	9,580,819	6,263,790	+52.96%
Xi'an^#*	Shaanxi	9,392,938	5,403,052	+73.85%
Hangzhou^*	Zhejiang	9,236,032	5,849,537	+57.89%
Foshan	Guangdong	9,042,509	6,771,895	+33.53%
Nanjing^*	Jiangsu	7,519,814	5,827,888	+29.03%
Shenyang^*	Liaoning	7,026,358	5,718,232	+22.88%
Zhengzhou^#*	Henan	6,461,013	3,677,032	+75.71%
Qingdao^~	Shandong	6,165,279	4,556,077	+35.32%
Suzhou	Jiangsu	5,892,892	3,721,700	+58.34%
Jinan^*	Shandong	5,648,162	3,641,562	+55.10%
Changsha^*	Hunan	5,630,256	3,193,354	+76.31%
Kunming^*	Yunnan	5,273,144	3,385,363	+55.76%
Harbin^*	Heilongjiang	5,242,897	4,596,313	+14.07%
Shijiazhuang^*	Hebei	5,090,440	3,095,219	+64.46%
Hefei^*	Anhui	5,055,978	3,098,727	+63.16%
Dalian^~	Liaoning	4,913,879	3,902,467	+25.92%
Xiamen^†	Fujian	4,617,251	3,119,110	+48.03%
Nanning^*	Guangxi	4,582,703	2,660,833	+72.23%
Changchun^*	Jilin	4,557,356	3,411,209	+33.60%
Taiyuan^*	Shanxi	4,303,673	3,154,157	+36.44%
Guiyang^*	Guizhou	4,021,275	2,520,061	+59.57%
Wuxi	Jiangsu	3,956,985	2,757,736	+43.49%
Ürümqi^*	Xinjiang	3,842,560	2,853,398	+34.67%
Zhongshan	Guangdong	3,841,873	2,740,994	+40.16%
Shantou^†	Guangdong	3,838,900	3,644,017	+5.35%
Ningbo^~	Zhejiang	3,731,203	2,583,073	+44.45%
Fuzhou^*~	Fujian	3,723,454	3,102,421	+20.02%
Nanchang^*	Jiangxi	3,518,975	2,614,380	+34.60%
Changzhou	Jiangsu	3,187,315	2,257,376	+41.20%
Lanzhou^*	Gansu	3,012,577	2,438,595	+23.54%
Nantong^~	Jiangsu	2,987,600	1,612,385	+85.29%
Huizhou	Guangdong	2,900,113	1,807,858	+60.42%
Xuzhou	Jiangsu	2,845,552	2,214,795	+28.48%
Zibo	Shandong	2,750,312	2,261,717	+21.60%
Linyi	Shandong	2,743,843	1,522,488	+80.22%
Wenzhou^~	Zhejiang	2,582,017	2,686,825	−3.90%
Tangshan	Hebei	2,549,968	2,128,191	+19.82%
Hohhot	Inner Mongolia	2,373,399	1,497,110	+58.53%
Haikou	Hainan	2,349,239	1,517,410	+54.82%
Shaoxing	Zhejiang	2,333,080	1,725,726	+35.19%
Yantai^~	Shandong	2,311,885	1,797,861	+28.59%
Luoyang	Henan	2,230,661	1,584,463	+40.78%

Definition and classification

List of major cities by population

Locations of the 50 most populous cities in mainland China

Cities and towns by population