Counter-Urbanization in China: A Systematic Review Toward a Comprehensive Typology

Drawing on a systematic review of both international and Chinese-language scholarship on counter-urbanization in China, this article proposes a comprehensive typology of counter-urbanization migrations—consisting of eight types of new migrants—based on the diverse motivations driving such migration. We build a bilingual corpus of 273 research papers published between the 1970s and 2025. Integrating bibliometric mapping and qualitative synthesis, we conduct a systematic review to trace the temporal evolution and thematic diversification of counter-urbanization research. The review reveals persistent conceptual ambiguity surrounding counter-urbanization in the Chinese context, which this study addresses by conceptually distinguishing counter-urbanization from suburban expansion, population decentralization, and return migration. Empirically, counter-urbanization in China is shown to involve heterogeneous demographic groups and multiple drivers. Our synthesis identifies a fundamental analytical divide between consumption-oriented and production-oriented engagements with rural space. Counter-urbanization in China therefore cannot be understood as a singular demographic reversal. Finally, contrary to the common view, it reveals that state intervention in China functions primarily as an enabling infrastructure rather than a direct driver of migration. Overall, this review advances a more nuanced theoretical framework for understanding urban-to-rural mobility in China and contributes to broader comparative debates on counter-urbanization beyond Western contexts.