Of the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions that have released their permanent resident population for last year, South China's Guangdong province has taken the top spot in the ranking with 126.57 million, Chinanews.com reported.

East China's Shandong province ranked second with 101.63 million, followed by Henan province (98.72 million) and Jiangsu province (85.15 million)

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed China's overall population fell by 850,000 year-on-year to 1.41 billion in 2022, the first decline in more than six decades. Despite this, 18 provincial-level regions still registered positive growth in permanent resident population, the report said.

Let's take a look at the top 10 Chinese regions by permanent resident population.