Population of Shanghai

In 2000, Shanghai had a population of 12,887,000, making it China’s largest city.

The UN estimated the 2003 population of the Shanghai urban agglomeration to be 12.8 million, while the Shanghai Municipality had a population of 17.1 million in 2003.

Discrepancies in reported population values for Shanghai may be due to the difficulty in counting temporary residents and migrants, who may number as many as 3 million, because they often do not register with the local authorities.

These migrants and temporary workers add to the congestion and crowding in Shanghai proper and local people frequently blame them for rising crime and rowdy behavior.

To alleviate the crowding, the government housing office is relocating many city dwellers to subsidized high-rise apartments in the suburbs.

Although these units offer modern conveniences that some city dwellings lack, such as indoor plumbing and electricity, many residents feel alienated and without a sense of community.

Almost all of Shanghai’s residents are ethnic Han Chinese, although there are small numbers of non-Han minorities.

There are people from all regions of China and many foreign countries living in Shanghai.

The local people speak a Chinese dialect called Wu. Most residents also speak Putonghua (Mandarin), China’s official spoken language.