The level of urbanization in many developing countries such as China has remained at less than
50% despite rapid urban population growth since the 1950s. Obtaining accurate information on
urban population is essential for monitoring and studying the on-going urbanization process that
is restructuring the societies of less urbanized countries. The difficulties in counting China’s
urban population have arisen from the accelerated urbanization in China under a model of dual
track urbanization since the early 1980s. Institutional settings for urbanization have also been
altered with the revision of criteria for city and town designation. These developments make it
increasingly difficult to count urban population in China, causing frequent changes in the
definition of urban population in five censuses from 1953 to 2000. Two approaches have been
adopted to estimate urban population data series for inter-census periods. This paper proposes a
third approach based on the concept of dual track urbanization, counting and estimating urban
non-agricultural and agricultural populations separately. After thorough examination and
comparison of the definition of urban population and data quality from five censuses, this paper
obtains a set of more consistent urban population data after a series of adjustments. A new series
of urban population data is estimated for 1982-2001. The results provide reliable urbanization
data for further study on urban transition and development in China.