According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China’s urban permanent population at the end of 2017 reached 813.47 million, larger than in 2016 by 20.49 million, and the urbanization rate was 58.52 percent, up 1.17 percentage points year-on-year, Xinhua reported on Feb 4.

With a succession of policies being implemented to promote urbanization, China’s urbanization rate saw a rise of 5.95 percentage points from 2012 to 2017. Additionally, the speedup in growth of per capita disposable income for rural residents outstripped that of urban residents by 0.8 percentage points.

Urbanization is conducive to expanding domestic demand, upgrading production, optimizing resource distribution, promoting all-around economic development, and enhancing public services, said Mao Youfeng, a vice-director at NBS.

With the urbanization rate rising from 30 to 70 percent, China is now in a golden era of economic development. Compounded with about 100 million migrant workers as a considerable component of the urban population and substantial room for development in urban infrastructure and other aspects, China’s urbanization will continue to drive forward its economic growth, said Mao.