Shanghai is getting more crowded but downtown residents are
enjoying a less packed room thanks to an exodus to the suburbs,
statistics released yesterday show.
According to the Shanghai Population and Family Planning
Committee, the city packs in 2,804 people per square kilometer, up
from 2,700 at the end of 2004.
The statistics also showed that the population density within
the Inner Ring Road fell from 41,000 at the end of 2004 to 33,900
per square kilometer because of infrastructure development in the
suburbs.
However, the density gap between downtown and the suburbs is
still wide.
"The population of the downtown area is 10 times that of the
suburbs," said Wang Guoqiang, vice director of the National
Population and Family Planning Commission, at an international
population forum in town yesterday. "This has a negative effect on
the city's resources and environment."
Wang said the density in the downtown area in New York City was
2.4 times that of the suburbs, 2 in Paris and 0.5 in Tokyo.
(Shanghai Daily November 9, 2006)