Living Condition of Floating Population in Urban China

Leiwen Jiang, Brown University and Peking University
Lihua Pang, Peking University
Qiang Ren, Peking University

Slum and squatter is not widespread in most Chinese towns and cities, although China has been experiencing rapid urbanization. Moreover, statistics from the 2000 national census, which for the first time provides information on housing, reveals that migrants do not necessary live in poorer housing condition than their counterparts of non-migrants; some housing facilities of floating population, who move without changes of household registration, are even better than non-migrants. Using 0.95% of household sample of 2000 census dataset, we study the living condition and its determinants of floating population, and answer questions, such as: (1) How do floating population live in urban China? (2) Which type of floating population live in which type of housing? (3) Why do some floating population live better than native urban residents? (4) What should be done and what would be the most efficient, to improve housing conditions of floating population, and other urban residents?