Ningbo reported a permanent resident population of 8.542 million, the third largest in East China's Zhejiang province, as of the end of 2019, 340,000 more than the previous year, according to a communiqué released by the Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics on Feb 16.

The city's population was 8.005 million in 2017, which means an average of 530,000 people have moved to the city per year since then.

The rapid growth of Ningbo's population is largely due to the city's sustained efforts to attract global talent and ease requirements for household registration.

On Sept 15 of last year, Ningbo implemented a new policy on household registration, making it significantly easier for talent to obtain household registration.

The policy abolished restrictions on household registration for elderly parents hoping to reside with their children. Those who lease a property, invest, or start a business in the city can also apply for household registration, according to the new regulations.

In addition, the city has issued a number of talent recruitment initiatives, including the 3315 Series Plan, to attract talent by providing them with better services.

Ningbo saw a 7.56 percent increase in talent in the manufacturing sector in 2018, according to a survey released by Liepin, a job-hunting website, in September of last year.

This is the fastest growth rate among all manufacturing hubs in the nation.

The urbanization rate among the city's permanent residents was 73.6 percent at the end of 2019, up 0.7 percentage points over the previous year, according to the communiqué.

By the end of last year, Zhejiang was home to 58.5 million permanent residents, a yearly uptick of 1.13 million.

Hangzhou and Wenzhou reported 10.36 million and 9.3 million permanent residents, respectively, making them the two most populous cities in the province.