Spatiotemporal changes in population distribution and socioeconomic development in China from 1950 to 2010

Abstract

Complex factors, including those associated with human and natural geography, have contributed to a longstanding imbalance in the relationship between population distribution and socioeconomic development in eastern and western China. Applying the population distribution structure index, the Gini coefficient of population distribution, and analysis of the movement of the population center of gravity and spatial autocorrelation, this study simultaneously analyzes the spatial characteristics of population density in China and the trends in its temporal and spatial variation from 1950 to 2010. It was found that while China’s population distribution has increasingly balanced development, the overall pattern of the spatial distribution has not changed significantly. Although the “Hu Huanyong Line” is still a valid representation of the country’s population distribution, the population distribution in parts of Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia has extended the boundary of the Hu Huanyong Line. The Chinese population has experienced a trend of movement towards the west. While the congruence between the population distribution and economic development of the country as a whole was relatively low, it was relatively high in the northeast and the relationship is steadily improving. Compared with the eastern and central regions, the western region has experienced a fluctuating and weakening trend.