Beijing’s rapidly growing population has all but reached the officially set ceiling of 18 million - 13 years early.

That target, set last year for 2020, has already been revised at least once by officials trying to keep pace with the flood of unskilled rural labourers and young professions lured by the dream of making money.

A year ago city officials said that the population had grown from 13.7 million to 15.4 million in the previous five years. The growth rate has since accelerated. Latest figures released by the Ministry of Public Security put the population at 17.14 million. And it is unlikely to shrink any time soon.

About two million more people are expected to arrive next year as Beijing prepares to host the Olympics.

There is another pressure: a mini population boom linked to the auspicious quality of the current Chinese year. According to the Xinhua news agency: “Given this year’s baby boom, triggered by the superstitious belief that babies born in the Chinese year of the pig are lucky, analysts say there is little hope for an immediate slowdown in Beijing’s population growth, even with the post Olympics lull and soaring housing prices.”

The growth is placing an almost unbearable strain on the city’s resources and environment. The Beijing municipality – an area slightly smaller than Wales – can provide food and water for only 14 million. Officials say it is already the driest capital on Earth.The latest figures show that Beijing has 12.04 million permanent residents in possession of hukou, or household registration certificates, which allow them to live and work in the capital.

In addition, the city is home to 5.1 million migrants who have made their way from poor farming communities to find jobs as workers, maids or construction labourers. Officials had hoped that they could restrain the capital’s population by requiring migrant workers to obtain certificates to live in the cities. Those who lack the right papers are routinely rounded up and sent home. But with the relaxation of some restrictions to keep pace with the demand for workers in urban areas, poor farmers are choosing to move to the cities without the residence permit, which means they have no access to healthcare or education.

Officials have said the water shortage in the capital, already seeing the advance of the Gobi desert towards its northern edges, could reach crisis point in 2010 when the population had been expected to reach 17.3 million.

To try to ease the pressure on the resources of a city where housing is already at a premium, the Government is trying to move residents farther out into satellite towns.

The elderly are being encouraged to move into neighbouring Hebei province, but many complain of isolation, the loss of friends, lack of contact with family and little access to public services such as supermarkets, banks and buses.

Urban planners have already mapped out at least seven ring roads fanning out around the city, but the urban sprawl to the north, south and east stretches beyond those arteries.

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