By the year 2020, some 89 percent of Beijing residents will live in the suburbs of the Chinese capital, according to experts from a population forum convened in Beijing recently.
   
Experts attending the forum forecast that Beijing's urban population has been declining year by year, and the suburbs have become new options for an increasing number of residents, including the migrant workers.
   
Statistics from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Public Security note that the population of Beijing will reach 14.49 million this year, with 2.09 million living in the central urban area, 7.23 million in the near suburbs and 5.17 million in the far outskirtan areas.
   
By 2020, noted the bureau, the total population of Beijing will rise to 17.64 million. The urban population will drop to 1.93 million -- just 10.94 percent of the total population -- while the population in the near suburbs will increase to 10.33 million, about 58.56 percent of the total, and the population in the far outskirtan areas will rise to 5.38 million, about 30.5 percent. 
   
Ma Xiaohong, an expert from the Beijing municipal population institute, said that recent urban planning has brought a great impact on the population change. 
   
As the city has placed greater attention to the development of its suburbs, more urban residents and migrant people will be attracted to these vigorous areas, alleviating the population pressure on the downtown area, said Ma.
   
Sources say that currently, most migrant people live in the near suburbs of Beijing, such as the districts of Haidian and Chaoyang, with 27 percent of them working in the education, culture and science and technology sectors. The rest are centered in the service industry, including jobs in retail, manufacturing and construction engineering.    

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2004)