As one of the types of administrative divisions in China, cities include three categories: municipalities, prefecture-level cities, and county-level cities. In addition, China's two special administrative regions are highly urbanized and commercialized, and are also one of the most densely populated areas in the world. While commonly recognized as major global cities in general discourse, as provincial-level administrative divisions under Constitution of China, they are not classified within the city hierarchy of ordinary administrative divisions. In terms of area, some prefecture-level cities and municipalities are comparable in scope, and a portion of them have similar population and economic sizes falling within the same general order of magnitude. The most significant administrative division difference between municipalities and prefecture-level cities is that municipalities have no subordinate county-level cities. Mostly, county-level cities in China have been established through the overall conversion of existing counties, but their development focus, policies authorized by the central and provincial governments, and approved development plans are different from those of ordinary counties. Based on this, this entry includes China's prefecture-level cities, municipalities and special administrative regions. Leagues and prefectures at the prefecture-level with prominent economic characteristics are also appropriately included. Unless unique resource development drives GDP growth, leading to a sharp increase in per capita GDP and attracting widespread attention, such administrative regions are only included as case studies due to their limited advantages in overall population size and economic development level. If you want to fully understand the economic level of prefecture-level administrative regions, please refer to the list of prefecture-level divisions of China by GDP.
The GDP indicators included in this entry are all based on nominal GDP at current prices. The converted US dollar GDP data is calculated based on the annual average exchange rate announced by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) of the Chinese government for that year. The IMF publishes the purchasing power parity (PPP) index for various currencies, calculated based on the average purchasing power of the US dollar in the United States and the average purchasing power of each currency in its local economy, and the standard unit of virtual currency under the purchasing power parity framework is the international dollar. This index is adjusted twice a year, and the data varies significantly between adjustments. For this reason, purchasing power parity-adjusted GDP figures are no longer included in this entry.
Methodology
A county-level city in China is usually administratively under the jurisdiction of a prefecture-level city. Compared with prefecture-level cities, the economic size and population size of a county-level city are not on the same order of magnitude. Including China's county-level cities and prefecture-level cities in the same set of comparative data is like including U.S. states and U.S. counties in the same set of data for comparison. In fact, they are not comparable. This entry does not include the per capita GDP of a county-level city.
The GDP per capita here is based on the annual average population. The annual average population or mid-year population is the average of the resident population at the end of the two consecutive years.
The per capita GDP of mainland China exceeded US$10,000 for the first time in 2018, and only 11 of the 31 provinces had a per capita GDP of over US$10,000 in 2018, and as of 2023, the per capita GDP of mainland China exceeded US$13,000, with 11 provinces exceeding the average level; 21 provinces had a per capita GDP of over US$10,000, accounting for the absolute majority. The per capita GDP of the cities included in this entry cannot be lower than the average level in order to highlight the characteristics of the entry.
According to the level of economic development, the top 90 Chinese cities in terms of nominal GDP per capita can basically reflect the overall development level of China's economy. The per capita GDP levels of these cities are higher than the national average. The unit of measurement for the data listed is the local currency Chinese yuan. In order to facilitate international comparison, the local currency is converted into US dollars, and the purchasing power parity (int'l dollar) indicators change too frequently and cannot be used as the main reference. All GDP data are officially released by the cities. This entry currently contains GDP data for 2023 and 2024, of which the 2023 GDP is revised based on the results of the fifth national economic census in 2023.
List + List of top 90 Chinese cities by GDP per capita