(CFP Photo)

The permanent resident population in Jiangsu’s eight cities along the Yangtze River reached over 55.44 million at the end of 2023, an increase of 128,600 people compared with the end of the previous year, according to the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Statistics.

These eight cities are Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Yangzhou, Taizhou and Nantong.

At the end of 2023, 75.04% of Jiangsu’s population resided in urban areas. For the eight cities combined, the average urbanization rate was 79.72%, an increase of 0.47 percentage point compared to 2022. Notably, 87.20% of Nanjing’s residents live in urban areas, followed by Wuxi (83.31%) and Suzhou (82.48%).