With the arrival of the Year of the Dragon, the population dynamics in Northeast China have ushered in long-awaited positive news: Jilin and Liaoning provinces have announced net population inflows for the first time in nearly 13 years, and Liaoning has achieved this achievement for the first time since 2012. This is undoubtedly a major breakthrough for the Northeast region, which has been facing the challenge of population loss for a long time. But does this mean that the trend of population loss in the Northeast has been fundamentally reversed? Let's dive deeper with analytics.
First, it's crucial to understand two key concepts of population growth: natural growth and mechanical growth. Natural growth refers to the difference between births and deaths, while mechanical growth refers to the difference between the incoming and out-moving populations. The net inflow of people in Jilin and Liaoning is mainly based on positive mechanical growth, i.e., the number of people moving in exceeds the number of people who move out. However, due to the aging problem and low birth rate faced by the Northeast region, the natural growth in these regions is still negative, i.e., there are more deaths than births.
Nonetheless, the fact that Jilin and Liaoning were able to achieve a net inflow of population against the backdrop of negative national population growth does show that these two provinces have made effective efforts to attract population. So, what exactly did Jilin and Liaoning do right?
From the perspective of economic growth, both provinces have achieved remarkable results. The GDP growth rate of Jilin and Liaoning is higher than the national average, which shows the vitality of their economic development and provides the basis for population attraction. In particular, the rapid development of key sectors such as the automobile manufacturing industry and the new energy vehicle industry has not only boosted economic growth, but also provided a large number of employment opportunities for talent, thus attracting more population inflow.
In addition, tourism in Jilin and Liaoning has also picked up rapidly, further boosting economic growth and employment, providing additional impetus for population inflows. Behind these achievements are the efforts made by the two provinces in terms of industrial development, talent policies and quality of life improvement.
In terms of talent policies, both Jilin and Liaoning have introduced a series of policy measures aimed at attracting and retaining talents, including lowering the threshold for settlement, providing settling-in subsidies, supporting children's education, and arranging employment for spouses. These policies not only attract foreign talents, but also encourage local talents to stay, injecting new vitality into economic development.
Although Heilongjiang's achievements in net population inflow have not yet been announced, the province has also achieved remarkable results in attracting talents, showing the joint efforts of the three northeastern provinces in reversing the trend of population loss.
The news of the net inflow of people in Jilin and Liaoning does bring a glimmer of hope to the northeast region. However, in order to truly achieve long-term stability of population growth, sustained economic growth, industrial upgrading, innovation in talent policies, and improvement of the living environment are also needed. The Northeast region has taken solid steps on this road of transformation, and the future development is worth looking forward to. Kunpeng Project