Talk:Pearl River Delta Economic Zone

Population - Dubious
The second claim (one citing publications under the auspices of the united nations) in the text is marked dubious/discuss but without any discussion, so I am starting one. I'm not sure about the details or relevance of that claim either, but the first claim is clearly, and seriously wrong. The population wasn't as low as 22m people back in the late 1990s, let alone twenty years of strong growth later.

Look at the linked section of the same article in chinese: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%8F%A0%E6%B1%9F%E4%B8%89%E8%A7%92%E6%B4%B2%E5%9C%B0%E5%8C%BA#.E4.BA.BA.E5.8F.A3 The table there lists the population estimates just of the cities proper. Assuming 0% growth for Dongguan since 2010, the municipal cities alone would have a population over 47million in 2015. As the area is known for its endless suburbs, there is likely at least twice this many people in the zone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.45.95.215 (talk) 16:47, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

edit: regarding that first claim, here is a reference to a different, but very similar claim: https://www.theurbandeveloper.com/recappingpping-ctbuh-international-conference/ “There is perhaps nowhere on the planet that demonstrates the impact of urbanisation as markedly as the cities of China’s Pearl River Delta – which surpassed Tokyo as the world’s largest single continual urban conurbation of 42 million in 2010, and is set to grow to potentially 120 million inhabitants by 2050,” said CTBUH in its correspondence with the delegates.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat is an internationally recognized institution of architecture, which is not the same thing as urban demographics. But it does make it exceedingly unlikely that the numbers were pulled out of thin air.