China: migrant laborers by destination region 2022

In 2022, approximately 52.3 percent of all Chinese migrant workers moved to East China for work. However, the economic situation in Western and Central China has improved in recent years and attracted a growing share of laborers.

Share of migrant workers in China from 2016 to 2022, by destination region

Characteristic	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021*	2022*
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

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Release date

April 2023

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Region

China

Survey time period

2016 to 2022

Supplementary notes

* 2021 and 2022 shares calculated by Statista.

The data have been collected through a survey which covered around 238,000 rural workers from 31 provinces, 1,587 districts and 8,480 villages. Migrant laborers are defined as workers that are still registered as rural permanent residents, but have left their place of origin for more than six months in order to find work in another place. They either stay in the same province or move to another province in search of work.

East China includes Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong, and Hainan. Central China includes Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan. West China includes Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Chongqing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. Northeast China includes, Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang.

A small fraction of workers (around 0.2 percent in 2022) moved to other regions for work, including Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and other global destinations.

Figures for earlier years have been taken from previous publications.

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