(Yicai) April 11 -- Southeastern Zhejiang province, southern Guangdong province and seven other Chinese provincial-level regions posted an increase in the number of residents in 2023, despite the country’s dwindling population, according to the latest data.

Zhejiang province, Guangdong province, Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, southern Hainan province, eastern Jiangsu province, southwestern Guizhou province and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the northwest saw their populations swell by a total of 1.6 million people last year, according to the 2023 demographic data released by 28 provincial-level regions so far. Heilongjiang province, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Xizang Autonomous Region have not yet released their statistics.

Most population flows are to the Yangtze River Delta that encompasses Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta which surrounds Guangzhou. Zhejiang’s population expanded by half million people last year and Guangdong's by 490,000 people.

People living in villages as well as small and medium-sized cities continue to migrate to the big cities. So although some provinces logged a decline in population, the number of people living in the megacities continued to rise.

The city with the fastest growing population was Hefei in eastern Anhui province, which posted an increase of 219,000 people, followed by Zhengzhou in central Henan province with 180,000 more residents, Hangzhou in eastern Zhejiang province with 146,000 people, and Chengdu in southwestern Sichuan province with 135,000. These are all so-called 'new first-tier cities', which means they are likely to join the ranks of the country’s four first-tier cities, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, later.

The economy has developed very fast in recent years in 'new first-tier cities' and 'strong second-tier cities' especially in the high and new tech sectors, Peng Peng, executive president of Guangdong Society of Economic Reform, told Yicai. This means more employment opportunities and the creation of new jobs, he said.

Guangdong reported over one million newborns for the fourth successive year in 2023. It has been the most fertile province for the past six years. Central Henan province came second with 695,000 births while Shandong province ranked third with 610,000.

Guizhou, Hainan, Qinghai, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which are mostly based in the west and south of the country, all posted birth rates of more than 0.8 percent.

Editors: Shi Yi, Kim Taylor