China's population grew modestly over the past decade, but nearly half its major cities lost residents due to a variety of factors, data from the latest national census showed.

我国每十年实施一次人口普查，去年实施的第七次人口普查数据显示，虽然过去十年里我国人口总数小幅增长，但受各种因素影响，我国近半的主要城市出现了人口减少。

Of China's 330-plus prefecture-level cities, 149-or 44.7%-had smaller populations last year than in 2010, according to the once-a-decade census, which was conducted last year.

我国共有330多个地级行政区，其中149市的人口数量与2010年相比出现下降，占比44.7%。

The cities with shrinking populations were scattered across 23 of the 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland, with most of them in northeastern, central and western China.

人口下降的149市分布在23个省级行政区，主要来自东北、中部及西部。

People moving to other places to seek better-paid jobs or marriage opportunities were major reasons for population declines, along with falling birthrates, said experts.

专家称，除了出生率下降的因素，这些城市人口减少的主要原因是：为找到更高薪工作或更好找对象而迁去别处。

The nationwide trend was most noticeable in the three northeastern provinces-Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang. More than 30 cities in the region saw their populations fall.

东北三省——辽宁、吉林和黑龙江的人口减少趋势最为显著，该区域内超过30个城市出现人口减少。