Intergenerational Mobility and Regional Differentiation in China's Population Structure, 2010–2020

The 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasizes promoting coordinated regional development and advancing a new type of urbanization centered on people. To better understand the evolution of the population pattern and the mechanisms behind it, GIS statistical analysis and mathematical statistical analysis were used. Combined with the data from the sixth national census in 2010 and the seventh national census in 2020, it was found that the overall trend of population growth was mainly concentrated in the eastern developed provinces such as Beijing and Shanghai, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Guangdong Province. There was also a significant increase in resource-based provinces such as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Tibet Autonomous Region, while the population in less developed provinces such as Henan Province, Gansu Province, the three northeastern provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region decreased significantly. The notable changes in the population pattern of the post-80s and post-70s generations are that some of them are moving out of Beijing and Shanghai, where the cost of living is high, and the post-60s generation is moving in to Sichuan and Chongqing. By group, young people with high knowledge mainly move to first-tier cities, but also to second-tier cities due to factors such as high housing prices and high living costs; Young ordinary college students are mainly concentrated in second-tier cities or positions within the system at all levels of counties and cities; Urban basic blue-collar workers are more likely to move to the local big cities; Older migrant workers are gradually returning to their hometowns to retire; The general living population in the central and western regions: all want to move to provincial capitals; The number of "new farmers" moving to the countryside is increasing. In light of the flow patterns of different age groups and groups, this article puts forward policy suggestions from aspects such as strengthening the training of professional and technical talents, attaching importance to grassroots elderly care and making large and medium-sized cities "fertility-friendly", and formulating development strategies based on local conditions to promote sustainable development of people and society.