THE central authorities in Beijing said yesterday the number of people living in cities outnumbered those living in the countryside for the first time, as more and more people leave rural areas to seek better economic opportunities in towns and cities.

    Urban dwellers now represent 51.27 percent of the entire population of nearly 1.35 billion — a percentage equivalent to 690.8 million people — the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.

    China has for centuries been a mainly agrarian nation, but economic reforms undertaken more than three decades ago triggered rapid growth and a huge population shift to the cities and coastal areas.

    The NBS said 21 million people moved to cities last year, while the number of rural dwellers dropped accordingly. This number includes a huge army of migrant workers who have helped fuel growth in the world’s second largest economy.

    A government report released in October predicted that further more than 100 million farmers would move to cities by 2020.(SD-Agencies)