Zipf's Law, Hierarchical Structure, and Cards-Shuffling Model for Urban Development

Table 4

The hierarchy of the 660 cities in PRC and the related measures (2005).

Class (m)	City number (𝑁𝑚)	Average population size (𝑃𝑚)	Average urban area (𝐴𝑚)
1	1	1778.420	819.880
2	2	1182.875	956.500
3	4	626.830	567.405
4	8	407.219	261.399
5	16	237.608	183.454
6	32	148.627	144.776
7	64	82.504	70.169
8	128	43.948	44.371
9	256	20.544	23.189
10	(149)	9.764	13.062

Source: The original data are from 2005 Statistic Annals of China’s Urban Construction published by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of China.
Notes: (1) The last class of each hierarchy is a lame-duck class. (2) The unit of population is “10 thousands person”, and the unit of urban area is “square kilometers.”