Population growth to be kept lower than 2 percent

Zhuhai is predicted to have a population of 1.8 million residents by 2020 in the recently released Guangdong Population Development Plan (2017-30). A moderate growth rate in step with Foshan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing, and Huizhou is being encouraged.

According to the 2016 Zhuhai Economic & Social Development Statistical Bulletin published by the Statistics Bureau, the city housed 1.63 million permanent residents at the end of 2015, compared with 1.58 million in 2010.

It is estimated that the permanent resident population will grow at a rate of 2 percent over the next two years. Of the projected 1.8 million, about 1.3 million would be Zhuhai-born, as that number is projected to increase by 3 percent annually. This growth is stated in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) for Zhuhai's Population Development, which was approved in 2016.

Liu Thai Ker, Singapore's "Father of Urban Planning", was appointed general counsel of urban planning in 2012. His team drafted a theoretical model of a fully developed Zhuhai. The model has 6.5 million people living in an urban area of 698 sq km (269.5 sq miles). 

Population of 1.8 million seen by 2020. [File photo]

The current population, however, is not evenly distributed. Xiangzhou District in the east covers less than one-third of the city's land area, yet contains nearly half the residents. Statistics on the district government website show that 585,700 natives (excluding those born in Hengqin New Area and the National Hi-Tech Industrial Development, Wanshan Marine Development Experimental, and Free Trade zones) and 836,000 permanent residents inhabit Xiangzhou.

The population density of the Gaolan Port Economic Zone, plus Jinwan and Doumen districts in the west, is significantly lower than that of Xiangzhou. Doumen, for example, had a permanent population of 435,000 in 2015 in an area of 674.8 sq km (261 sq miles).