China to ease residency restrictions in urban areas

BEIJING - China will relax the restrictions for urban household registration in the 2021-2025 period, said a plan released by the National Development and Reform Commission Tuesday.

The country will lift all limits on household registration in cities with less than 3 million residents and ease those in cities with populations of 3-5 million.

The point-based household registration system will be streamlined for megacities with over 5 million residents. The plan also encouraged these cities to scrap their annual residency quota.

China will likely see a steady rise in the urbanization rate among its permanent resident population by 2025, with urban public services accessible to all permanent residents, including those without registered household status.

By then, the human carrying capacity of city clusters nationwide will improve notably, while the construction of major metropolitan areas will see marked progress, according to the plan.

The NDRC said that more efforts would go into promoting the free flow of factors and the appropriate allocation of resources between urban and rural areas amid the country's urban-rural integrated development.

China's urbanization rate of permanent residents reached 64.72 percent in 2021. The urban-rural income ratio narrowed to 2.5, official data showed.