# Prefecture-level city (地级市)
A prefecture-level city (地级市) is a second-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China that holds the legal status of a city and governs, in addition to its own urban districts, a surrounding territory of counties and county-level cities on behalf of the province. It sits between the province-level divisions (provinces, autonomous regions, and the four directly administered municipalities) and the county-level divisions below.[1](https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/document/2025-06/2025-05wp.pdf) • [2](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/731721626242031390/pdf/Main-Report.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Hierarchical position | Second-level division, between province level and county level in China's four-level subnational structure[2](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/731721626242031390/pdf/Main-Report.pdf) |
| Prefecture-level divisions | 293 prefecture-level cities, 30 autonomous prefectures, 7 prefectures, and 3 leagues[1](https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/document/2025-06/2025-05wp.pdf) |
| Average size | OECD counted 333 prefecture-level cities with an average population of 3.8 million (2015 review)[3](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2015/04/oecd-urban-policy-reviews-china-2015_g1g51028/9789264230040-en.pdf) |
| Origin of the modern form | The "city leading counties" reform, promoted by the central government from 1983, replaced prefecture administrative offices with prefecture-level cities[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276) |
| Typical composition | A central city of one or more municipal districts plus surrounding counties and county-level cities[5](https://wordpress.clarku.edu/juzhang/wp-content/uploads/sites/423/2025/11/UrbanExpansion_JEG_Final.pdf) |
| Statistical caveat | Population and socioeconomic statistics of prefecture-level cities are hard to compare because much of their land is functionally rural[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2023.2267064) |
## Position in the administrative hierarchy
China's subnational government structure consists of four levels: the provincial level, the prefectural level, the county level (including county-level cities and the districts of a prefecture-level city), and the township level.[2](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/731721626242031390/pdf/Main-Report.pdf) The prefecture level is one of four types at that rank: prefecture-level cities, autonomous prefectures for designated ethnic minorities, prefectures, and leagues, the last found only in [Inner Mongolia](https://www.edgepedia.org/inner-mongolia).[1](https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/document/2025-06/2025-05wp.pdf) A typical prefecture-level city consists of a central city made up of one or more municipal districts and a surrounding peripheral region of several counties.[5](https://wordpress.clarku.edu/juzhang/wp-content/uploads/sites/423/2025/11/UrbanExpansion_JEG_Final.pdf)
Provinces differ in how their cities are ranked. Zhejiang, for example, has two sub-provincial cities, Hangzhou and Ningbo, which rank above the ordinary prefecture level, and nine prefecture-level cities: Wenzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Quzhou, Zhoushan, Taizhou, and Lishui.[7](https://www.ezhejiang.gov.cn/2025-01/17/c_392859.htm) Jiangsu has 13 prefecture-level cities.[8](https://en.jiangsu.gov.cn/col/col88907/index.html)
## Formation through "city leading counties"
**The 1983 reform.** Before 1983 the administrative hierarchy consisted of provinces, prefectures, counties, and townships; beginning in 1983 the prefectures were gradually transformed into prefecture-level cities, which became the administrative layer between provinces and counties.[9](https://www.econ.uzh.ch/ipcdp/Papers/ipcdp_wp207_2.pdf) • [14](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/212671468219308722/pdf/704950ESW0P0950043B00PUBLIC00SMT0en.pdf) The reform of "city leading counties" (市领导县) was promoted by the central government as a macro-level policy from 1983, producing large-scale adjustments at the prefecture and county levels. The reform proceeded step by step: prefecture administrative offices were phased out nationwide, while counties and county-level cities were assigned to the administration of prefecture-level cities.[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276) The design aimed to centralize authority in county governance to the prefecture-level cities and accelerate the development of entire city regions.[10](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119019300518)
The change was rapid. From 1978 to 2000, the number of designated cities, including prefecture-level and county-level cities, increased by a total of 470, an average of about 20 new cities per year.[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276) By 2004 the number of prefecture administrative offices had fallen to 17, governing just 141 county-level units, while prefecture-level cities had increased to 283, leading more than 1,700 county-level divisions excluding city districts.[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276) Since the widespread implementation of the system, China's administrative framework has evolved into an urban-rural integrated, stable four-tier structure across the country.[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276)
**How new cities were created.** When a county is converted into a county-level city, the central government usually states in the approval document that the new city is subordinate to the province but substitutionally led (代管, dai guan) by the prefecture-level city, a device that keeps the arrangement within the two categories of local division stipulated in the Constitution.[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276) Cities at the prefecture level or higher are permitted to set up city districts, but approval authority for establishing districts lies with the [State Council](https://www.edgepedia.org/state-council).[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276) Throughout the reform period from 1983 to 2020, a total of 131 county-level cities were upgraded to prefecture-level cities, with their territories synchronously converted to city districts.[4](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276)
## The "city" question and statistics
A prefecture-level city is often not a city in the sense of a large continuous urban settlement. Its territory typically combines a main central urban area with extensive rural counties, so the population and socioeconomic statistics of different prefecture-level cities are incomparable as measures of urban life; a 2023 review in *Eurasian Geography and Economics* identifies this incomparability as the first of two critical challenges in using prefecture-level cities as city-equivalent statistical units, and notes the national government addressed it in 2008, while the second challenge remains unsolved.[6](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2023.2267064) The OECD's 2015 review similarly worked with functional urban areas rather than administrative city boundaries when comparing Chinese cities internationally.[3](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2015/04/oecd-urban-policy-reviews-china-2015_g1g51028/9789264230040-en.pdf)
The scale of the units follows from their rural hinterlands. The OECD review counted 333 prefecture-level cities averaging 3.8 million inhabitants each, figures that describe the whole administrative territory rather than the built-up core.[3](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2015/04/oecd-urban-policy-reviews-china-2015_g1g51028/9789264230040-en.pdf)
## Effects of upgrading and later adjustments
Upgrading a county to prefecture-level city status has measurable consequences. A quasi-experimental study combining propensity score matching with difference-in-differences found that county-to-prefecture-level city upgrading led to a significant increase in urban population growth and fiscal revenue in the few years after upgrading, although it did not necessarily produce rapid industrialization.[11](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098019830898) Research using prefecture-level data from 1983 to 2003 found that after the reform, cities experienced increases in urban industrial productivity, measured as industrial output per urban population.[10](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119019300518)
**Provincial administration of counties.** Since 2005, a pilot program has placed counties and county-level cities under the direct administration of provinces instead of prefecture-level cities, weakening the intermediate tier in the participating provinces.[12](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265892444_Reconstructing_Urban_Scale_New_Experiments_with_the_Provincial_Administration_of_Counties_Reform_in_China) Jiangsu illustrates the arrangement: Kunshan City, Taixing City, and Shuyang County are under the direct jurisdiction of the provincial government on a pilot basis.[8](https://en.jiangsu.gov.cn/col/col88907/index.html)
**Codes and record-keeping.** [Administrative division](https://www.edgepedia.org/administrative-division) codes for provincial, prefecture, and county-level units are determined by the civil affairs department of the State Council under the Measures for the Administration of Administrative Division Codes, adopted on 20 June 2025, promulgated as [Ministry](https://www.edgepedia.org/ministry-government-department) of Civil Affairs Order No. 79, and effective from 1 September 2025; the ministry publishes the codes for all levels each January through the national place-name information database.[13](https://big5.www.gov.cn/gate/big5/www.gov.cn/gongbao/2025/issue_12226/202508/content_7036972.html)
## References
1. [Background and Data, UCLA Anderson School of Management working paper (2025)](https://www.anderson.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/document/2025-06/2025-05wp.pdf)
2. [World Bank, Main Report on China's subnational government structure](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/731721626242031390/pdf/Main-Report.pdf)
3. [OECD Urban Policy Reviews: China 2015, OECD Publishing](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2015/04/oecd-urban-policy-reviews-china-2015_g1g51028/9789264230040-en.pdf)
4. [The Chinese model of urban development: city transformations and administrative division adjustments, 1978–2020, Eurasian Geography and Economics](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2025.2480276)
5. [Government-Directed Urban Growth, Firm Entry (working paper, Clark University)](https://wordpress.clarku.edu/juzhang/wp-content/uploads/sites/423/2025/11/UrbanExpansion_JEG_Final.pdf)
6. [Is prefecture-level city a "city" in China: a critical review, Eurasian Geography and Economics 66(3)](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15387216.2023.2267064)
7. [Administrative divisions, Zhejiang provincial government portal](https://www.ezhejiang.gov.cn/2025-01/17/c_392859.htm)
8. [Population and regions in Jiangsu, Jiangsu Provincial People's Government](https://en.jiangsu.gov.cn/col/col88907/index.html)
9. [Working paper ipcdp_wp207, Department of Economics, University of Zurich](https://www.econ.uzh.ch/ipcdp/Papers/ipcdp_wp207_2.pdf)
10. [Centralization and regional development: Evidence from a political hierarchy reform to create cities in China, Regional Science and Urban Economics](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119019300518)
11. [Jiejing Wang and Anthony G.O. Yeh (2020), Administrative restructuring and urban development in China: Effects of urban administrative level upgrading, Urban Studies](https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098019830898)
12. [Reconstructing Urban Scale: New Experiments with the "Provincial Administration of Counties" Reform in China](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265892444_Reconstructing_Urban_Scale_New_Experiments_with_the_Provincial_Administration_of_Counties_Reform_in_China)
13. [行政區劃代碼管理辦法 (民政部令第79號), State Council Gazette](https://big5.www.gov.cn/gate/big5/www.gov.cn/gongbao/2025/issue_12226/202508/content_7036972.html)
14. [documents1.worldbank.org](https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/212671468219308722/pdf/704950ESW0P0950043B00PUBLIC00SMT0en.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Places and geography › Administrative and cadastral territories › First-order subdivisions › Provinces and prefecture-level divisions of China*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 18, 2026; Sep 19, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 21, 2026 · Last review: Oct 21, 2026*
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