As of 2019, Shanghai had a total population of 24,281,400, including 14,504,300 (59.7%) hukou holders (registered locally).[123] According to the 2010 national census, 89.3% of Shanghai's population live in urban areas, and 10.7% live in rural areas.[155] Based on the population of its total administrative area, Shanghai is the second largest of the four municipalities of China, behind Chongqing, but is generally considered the largest Chinese city because the urban population of Chongqing is much smaller.[156] According to the OECD, Shanghai's metropolitan area has an estimated population of 34 million.[157]
According to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, about 157,900 residents in Shanghai are foreigners, including 28,900 Japanese, 21,900 Americans and, 20,800 Koreans.[158] The actual number of foreign citizens in the city is probably much higher.[159] Shanghai is also a domestic immigration city—40.3% (9.8 million) of the city's residents are from other regions of China.[123]
Shanghai has a life expectancy of 83.6 years for the city's registered population,[160] the highest life expectancy of all cities in mainland China. This has also caused the city to experience population aging—in 2017, 33.1% (4.8 million) of the city's registered population was aged 60 or above.[161] In 2017, the Chinese government implemented population controls for Shanghai, resulting in a population decline of 10,000 people by the end of the year.[162]
Religion
Main article on Chinese Wikipedia: 上海宗教
See also: Religion in China
The golden pagoda of Jing'an Temple
Due to its cosmopolitan history, Shanghai has a blend of religious heritage; religious buildings and institutions are scattered around the city. According to a 2012 survey, only 13.1% of the city's population belongs to organized religions, including Buddhists with 10.4%, Protestants with 1.9%, Catholics with 0.7%, and other faiths with 0.1% while the remaining 86.9% of the population could be either atheists or involved in worship of nature deities and ancestors or folk religious sects.[163]
Buddhism, in its Chinese varieties, has had a presence in Shanghai since the Three Kingdoms period, during which the Longhua Temple—the largest temple in Shanghai—and the Jing'an Temple were founded.[164] Another significant temple is the Jade Buddha Temple, which was named after a large statue of Buddha carved out of jade in the temple.[165] As of 2014, Buddhism in Shanghai had 114 temples, 1,182 clergical staff, and 453,300 registered followers.[164] The religion also has its own college, the Shanghai Buddhist College [zh], and its own press, Shanghai Buddhological Press [zh].[166]
The St. Ignatius Cathedral
Catholicism was brought into Shanghai in 1608 by Italian missionary Lazzaro Cattaneo.[167] The Apostolic Vicariate of Shanghai was erected in 1933, and was further elevated to the Diocese of Shanghai in 1946.[168] Notable Catholic sites include the St. Ignatius Cathedral in Xujiahui—the largest Catholic church in the city,[169] the St. Francis Xavier Church, and the She Shan Basilica.[170] Other forms of Christianity in Shanghai include Eastern Orthodox minorities and, since 1996, registered Christian Protestant churches.
Although currently making up a fraction of the religious population in Shanghai, Jewish people have played an influential role in the city’s history. After the Treaty of Nanking ended the First Opium War in 1842, the city was opened up to western populations and merchants traveled to Shanghai for its rich business potential, including many prominent Jewish families. The Sassoons amassed great wealth in the opium and textile trades, cementing their status by funding many of the buildings that have become iconic in Shanghai's skyline, such as the Cathay Hotel in 1929.[171] The Hardoons were another prominent Baghdadi Jewish family that used their business success to define Shanghai in the 20th century. The head of the family Silas Hardoon, who was one of the richest people in the world during the 1800s, financed Nanjing Road, which then housed department stores in the International Settlement but now is one of the busiest shopping centers in the world. During World War II, thousands of Jews emigrated to Shanghai in an effort to flee Nazi Germany. They lived in a designated area called the Shanghai Ghetto and formed a community centered on the Ohel Moishe Synagogue, which is now the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.[172] In 1939, Horace Kadoorie, the head of the powerful philanthropic Sephardic Jewish family in Shanghai, founded the Shanghai Jewish Youth Association to support Jewish refugees through English education so they would be prepared to emigrate from Shanghai when the time came.[173]
Islam came into Shanghai during the Yuan dynasty. The city's first mosque, Songjiang Mosque, was built during the Zhizheng (至正) era under Emperor Huizong. Shanghai's Muslim population increased in the 19th and early 20th centuries (when the city was a treaty port), during which time many mosques—including the Xiaotaoyuan Mosque, the Huxi Mosque, and the Pudong Mosque—were built. The Shanghai Islamic Association is located in the Xiaotaoyuan Mosque in Huangpu.[174]
Shanghai has several folk religious temples, including the City God Temple at the heart of the Old City, the Dajing Ge Pavilion dedicated to the Three Kingdoms general Guan Yu, the Confucian Temple of Shanghai, and a major Taoist center Shanghai White Cloud Temple [zh] where the Shanghai Taoist Association locates.[175]
Language
Main article: Shanghainese
Ability to speak the following dialects/languages in Shanghai (2013)[176]Languages%Can SpeakMandarin 97.0%Shanghainese 81.4%English 47.5%Other Chinese 29.7%Other foreign languages 7.8%Sampled among residents ≥ 13 years old.
The vernacular language spoken in the city is Shanghainese, a dialect of the Taihu Wu subgroup of the Wu Chinese family. This is different from the official Chinese dialect, Mandarin, which is mutually unintelligible with Wu Chinese.[177] Modern Shanghainese is based on other dialects of Taihu Wu: Suzhounese, Ningbonese, and the local dialect of Songjiang Prefecture.[178]
Prior to its expansion, the language spoken in Shanghai was subordinate to those spoken around Jiaxing and later Suzhou,[178] and was known as "the local tongue" (本地闲话), which is now being used in suburbs only.[179] In the late 19th century, downtown Shanghainese (上海闲话) appeared, undergoing rapid changes and quickly replacing Suzhounese as the prestige dialect of the Yangtze River Delta region. At the time, most of the city's residents were immigrants from the two adjacent provinces, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so Shanghainese was mostly a hybrid between Southern Jiangsu and Ningbo dialects. After 1949, Putonghua (Standard Mandarin) has also had a great impact on Shanghainese as a result of being rigorously promoted by the government.[178] Since the 1990s, many migrants outside of the Wu-speaking region have come to Shanghai for education and jobs. They often cannot speak the local language and therefore use Putonghua as a lingua franca. Because Putonghua and English were more favored, Shanghainese began to decline, and fluency among young speakers weakened. In recent years, there have been movements within the city to promote the local language and protect it from fading out.[180][181]
As of 2019, Shanghai had a total population of 24,281,400, including 14,504,300 (59.7%) hukou holders (registered locally).[123] According to the 2010 national census, 89.3% of Shanghai's population live in urban areas, and 10.7% live in rural areas.[155] Based on the population of its total administrative area, Shanghai is the second largest of the four municipalities of China, behind Chongqing, but is generally considered the largest Chinese city because the urban population of Chongqing is much smaller.[156] According to the OECD, Shanghai's metropolitan area has an estimated population of 34 million.[157]
According to the Shanghai Municipal Statistics Bureau, about 157,900 residents in Shanghai are foreigners, including 28,900 Japanese, 21,900 Americans and, 20,800 Koreans.[158] The actual number of foreign citizens in the city is probably much higher.[159] Shanghai is also a domestic immigration city—40.3% (9.8 million) of the city's residents are from other regions of China.[123]
Shanghai has a life expectancy of 83.6 years for the city's registered population,[160] the highest life expectancy of all cities in mainland China. This has also caused the city to experience population aging—in 2017, 33.1% (4.8 million) of the city's registered population was aged 60 or above.[161] In 2017, the Chinese government implemented population controls for Shanghai, resulting in a population decline of 10,000 people by the end of the year.[162]
Religion
Main article on Chinese Wikipedia: 上海宗教
See also: Religion in China
The golden pagoda of Jing'an Temple
Due to its cosmopolitan history, Shanghai has a blend of religious heritage; religious buildings and institutions are scattered around the city. According to a 2012 survey, only 13.1% of the city's population belongs to organized religions, including Buddhists with 10.4%, Protestants with 1.9%, Catholics with 0.7%, and other faiths with 0.1% while the remaining 86.9% of the population could be either atheists or involved in worship of nature deities and ancestors or folk religious sects.[163]
Buddhism, in its Chinese varieties, has had a presence in Shanghai since the Three Kingdoms period, during which the Longhua Temple—the largest temple in Shanghai—and the Jing'an Temple were founded.[164] Another significant temple is the Jade Buddha Temple, which was named after a large statue of Buddha carved out of jade in the temple.[165] As of 2014, Buddhism in Shanghai had 114 temples, 1,182 clergical staff, and 453,300 registered followers.[164] The religion also has its own college, the Shanghai Buddhist College [zh], and its own press, Shanghai Buddhological Press [zh].[166]
The St. Ignatius Cathedral
Catholicism was brought into Shanghai in 1608 by Italian missionary Lazzaro Cattaneo.[167] The Apostolic Vicariate of Shanghai was erected in 1933, and was further elevated to the Diocese of Shanghai in 1946.[168] Notable Catholic sites include the St. Ignatius Cathedral in Xujiahui—the largest Catholic church in the city,[169] the St. Francis Xavier Church, and the She Shan Basilica.[170] Other forms of Christianity in Shanghai include Eastern Orthodox minorities and, since 1996, registered Christian Protestant churches.
Although currently making up a fraction of the religious population in Shanghai, Jewish people have played an influential role in the city’s history. After the Treaty of Nanking ended the First Opium War in 1842, the city was opened up to western populations and merchants traveled to Shanghai for its rich business potential, including many prominent Jewish families. The Sassoons amassed great wealth in the opium and textile trades, cementing their status by funding many of the buildings that have become iconic in Shanghai's skyline, such as the Cathay Hotel in 1929.[171] The Hardoons were another prominent Baghdadi Jewish family that used their business success to define Shanghai in the 20th century. The head of the family Silas Hardoon, who was one of the richest people in the world during the 1800s, financed Nanjing Road, which then housed department stores in the International Settlement but now is one of the busiest shopping centers in the world. During World War II, thousands of Jews emigrated to Shanghai in an effort to flee Nazi Germany. They lived in a designated area called the Shanghai Ghetto and formed a community centered on the Ohel Moishe Synagogue, which is now the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum.[172] In 1939, Horace Kadoorie, the head of the powerful philanthropic Sephardic Jewish family in Shanghai, founded the Shanghai Jewish Youth Association to support Jewish refugees through English education so they would be prepared to emigrate from Shanghai when the time came.[173]
Islam came into Shanghai during the Yuan dynasty. The city's first mosque, Songjiang Mosque, was built during the Zhizheng (至正) era under Emperor Huizong. Shanghai's Muslim population increased in the 19th and early 20th centuries (when the city was a treaty port), during which time many mosques—including the Xiaotaoyuan Mosque, the Huxi Mosque, and the Pudong Mosque—were built. The Shanghai Islamic Association is located in the Xiaotaoyuan Mosque in Huangpu.[174]
Shanghai has several folk religious temples, including the City God Temple at the heart of the Old City, the Dajing Ge Pavilion dedicated to the Three Kingdoms general Guan Yu, the Confucian Temple of Shanghai, and a major Taoist center Shanghai White Cloud Temple [zh] where the Shanghai Taoist Association locates.[175]
Language
Main article: Shanghainese
Ability to speak the following dialects/languages in Shanghai (2013)[176]Languages%Can SpeakMandarin 97.0%Shanghainese 81.4%English 47.5%Other Chinese 29.7%Other foreign languages 7.8%Sampled among residents ≥ 13 years old.
The vernacular language spoken in the city is Shanghainese, a dialect of the Taihu Wu subgroup of the Wu Chinese family. This is different from the official Chinese dialect, Mandarin, which is mutually unintelligible with Wu Chinese.[177] Modern Shanghainese is based on other dialects of Taihu Wu: Suzhounese, Ningbonese, and the local dialect of Songjiang Prefecture.[178]
Prior to its expansion, the language spoken in Shanghai was subordinate to those spoken around Jiaxing and later Suzhou,[178] and was known as "the local tongue" (本地闲话), which is now being used in suburbs only.[179] In the late 19th century, downtown Shanghainese (上海闲话) appeared, undergoing rapid changes and quickly replacing Suzhounese as the prestige dialect of the Yangtze River Delta region. At the time, most of the city's residents were immigrants from the two adjacent provinces, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, so Shanghainese was mostly a hybrid between Southern Jiangsu and Ningbo dialects. After 1949, Putonghua (Standard Mandarin) has also had a great impact on Shanghainese as a result of being rigorously promoted by the government.[178] Since the 1990s, many migrants outside of the Wu-speaking region have come to Shanghai for education and jobs. They often cannot speak the local language and therefore use Putonghua as a lingua franca. Because Putonghua and English were more favored, Shanghainese began to decline, and fluency among young speakers weakened. In recent years, there have been movements within the city to promote the local language and protect it from fading out.[180][181]
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