With the continuous advancement of China's economic development and social transformations, the patterns of population migration have undergone corresponding changes. The accelerating urbanization process has gradually formed a development pattern where central cities drive urban clusters, which in turn promote regional economic growth. Coupled with the rapid improvement of transportation infrastructure, particularly the high-speed rail network, population mobility has significantly increased, demonstrating accelerated spatial aggregation characteristics towards central cities and urban clusters. Through population migration and mobility patterns, we can gain insights into urban economic development, public services, urban planning, and governance capabilities. From a macro perspective, analyzing population mobility plays crucial roles in adjusting population policies, assessing labor surplus/deficit(劳动力盈缺), promoting regional cultural exchanges, and even facilitating ethnic integration(民族融合).
Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, population mobility information became critically important. Given developed transportation systems and the outbreak's timing around the Spring Festival, high-frequency, large-scale population flows posed challenges for epidemic control. Regional restrictions on population mobility reflect local containment measures to certain extent. Insights into population flow trends enable more efficient urban management and resource allocation across departments.
Since 2019, the CnOpenData team has compiled three temporal versions of population migration big data, containing three sub-modules: Migration Source Information by Region, Migration Destination Information by Region, and Intra-city Travel Intensity Information. These modules cover overall trends and detailed migration data of inflow/outflow cities and provinces, providing high-quality big data samples for related research.
Version Update Notes
Field Display
Migration Source Information Module by Region
Migration Destination Information Module by Region
Intra-city Travel Intensity Information Module
Sample Data
Overall Trend of Migration Source Cities
Overall Trend of Migration Source Provinces
Detailed Migration Source Cities
Detailed Migration Source Provinces
Overall Trend of Migration Destination Cities
Overall Trend of Migration Destination Provinces
Detailed Migration Destination Cities
Detailed Migration Destination Provinces
Intra-city Travel Intensity Information
Relevant Literature
- Zhang Tongbin and Wang Lei, 2024: "Policy Signals and the Long-term Settlement Intentions of Migrant Population", World Economy (世界经济), No. 7.
Data Update Frequency
Annual Update