China's floating population: Definitions, data and recent findings

Among migrants in China, one of the most difficult groups to define and measure is that referred to as the floating population (liudong renkou), a rapidly growing population concentrated largely in urban areas. But who belongs to this floating population? Although this term conjures up images of unsettled persons lacking permanent residence, it is often used ambiguously or denotes distinctly different groups of people. This paper discusses these ambiguities and identifies a variety of definitions that we think are pertinent. The clarification of these definitions leads to a discussion of major sources of data (censuses, migration surveys and household registration lists). Along the way, we review some key empirical findings on China's floating population. We also discuss factors that have affected recent trends and are likely to affect future trends in migration and the floating population.