

Comparing Chinese provinces with countries

All the parities in China


China is now the world's second-biggest economy, but some of its provinces by themselves would rank fairly high in the global league. Our map shows the nearest equivalent country. For example, Guangdong's GDP (at market exchange rates) is almost as big as Indonesia's; the output of both Jiangsu and Shandong exceeds Switzerland's. Some provinces may exaggerate their output: the sum of their reported GDPs is 10% higher than the national total. But over time the latter has consistently been revised up, suggesting that any overstatement is modest.

What about other economic yardsticks? Guangdong exports as much as South Korea, Jiangsu as much as Taiwan. Shanghai's GDP per person is as high as Saudi Arabia's (at purchasing-power parity), though still well below that in China's special administrative regions, Hong Kong and Macau. At the other extreme, the poorest province, Guizhou, has an income per head close to that of India. Note that these figures use the same PPP conversion rate for the whole of China, but prices are likely to be lower in poorer provinces than in richer ones, slightly reducing regional inequality.

Correction, February 25th: The original figure given for Hong Kong's exports included re-exports. This has been changed to refer to domestic exports only.


Also see our other "country equivalents" interactive maps:
US states as countries
Indian states and territories as countries
Brazilian states as countries

Readers' comments



Look at how OnTheContrary spits venom. Looks like the post has really irked some of our uber-nationalist Indian friends on TE. I know Nepal quite well, and travel there frequently, also write about some South Asian issues. I have never felt that the people there want to be united with China. The fears the Indians are trying to spread of China seems contrary to their own behavior in South Asia as a big-bully that none of its neighbors like. Nepal is more deeply connected to India and there's is a kind of love-hate relationship- there's very little to do with China.

Talking about Bhutan, the Indian army has been permanently posted inside Bhutan, a sovereign country, in the name of protecting India's national interests. Who are you trying to fool?


TheUnfocused wrote: Feb 24th 2011 11:21 GMT .How is Macau's GDP per capita so incredible????

@ TheUnfocused

Thanks to the contribution of the corrupted CCP members.


OppositeMoonsign wrote: Feb 24th 2011 8:51 GMT .@sora2000,
That's because Taiwan is not part of mainland China, which is currently under the Communist rule. The most distictive difference between Taiwan and mainland China is they have different political institutions leading to the fact they are nearly different in every aspect of life.

@ OppositeMoonsign

I can only see Taiwanese and Chinese eat, sleep and sh*t too. :-)


The export stats are highly misleading. HK is effectively re-exporting and these figures include all goods that both enter and continue on to China (such as resource exports from Canada) as well as those leaving China and going westward via HK. This is why HK's "exports" appear to be in the neighbourhood of 700% of its actual GDP precisely because it is a free port on the cusp of "real" China (i.e., the PRC), so this is a key clarification. Also, as mentioned below, a similar phenomenon occurs internally within the PRC; specifically, interior provinces' exports will also (or exclusively) count toward the export total of the coastal province from which the goods depart the PRC. It would be illustrative to have the Economist's methodology broken down for a more useful set of figures. I suspect there is a tremendous level of double-dipping in these figures and I therefore fail to see the value of these charts, other than to contribute to the already hugely inflated hyperbole surrounding everything Chinese.

How about a chart indicating relative asset bubbles province-to-province to capture the inflated observations and predictions surrounding what is essentially a hugely overbuilt pirate economy? What will Shanghai's housing crash look like relative to US subprime? What will Guangdong's manufacturing crash look like relative to the internet crash? I think these are far more interesting questions that simply staring awestruck into the never-ending rosy picture each Mainland province and the national government spew out daily. A little bit more intellectual discipline please!


Interesting to see how the access to the water front changes things, all the main exporters are up to the Coast.
What about service exports? How do they fit in this?



"The government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) started paying its 2011 cash handout to Macao residents, with senior residents receiving the cash first, according to a notice published in the Official Gazette.

Holders of valid or renewable Macao SAR Resident Identity Card on December 31, 2010 are entitled to receive the cash handouts, the notice said. Permanent and non-permanent residents will get 4,000 patacas ($500) and 2,400 ($300) in cash respectively.

The so-called wealth-sharing scheme, launched by then Chief Executive of Macao SAR Ho Hau Wah in 2008, is aimed at easing living pressures of Macao residents."


Why it is named Mongolia. It is big confusion. Mongolia is independent country not part of China. And also I do not believe that real GDP of Inner Mongolian is worser that the statistic.


"Terbish wrote:
Feb 25th 2011 9:18 GMT


It says Inner Mongolia. You're looking at the chart. On the chart "Inner" is dropped because it doesn't fit in the damn list. Why are so many people asking this?


This is indeed a very interesting chart.

What is striking is how vastly different the GDP and GDP per capita are. Apparently the wealth gap between rich and poor is now greater in China than in India. This inequality could be key to destabilising China in future.

Again, we must be aware that "exports" is an extraordinarily broad category that includes everything from re-exports (products which might not even touch the soil of the province) to financial services which deal mostly with theoretical numbers and man hours.


LOL! Like all things Chinese, these figures are also fake! Chinese gets pissed-off when they realize that the reality is different from what they have been fed by their dictators.


This report is defnitely exaggerate China's economic power.
I question how this report comes from.
I am from Guizhou,China. In Guizhou, there a great number of people live in poverty. When 1988 the wheather was extremely bad, many of them even did not have enough food to survive the winter;however the prices in Guizhou's capital city Guiyang are sitll as high as some rich city,except the estate price. Therefore,GDP per capita in Guizhou should be very low (at purchasing-power parity).
Another reasonable cause for these exaggerative figures is Real Estate Bubble. It is manifest that in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, the estate price is increasing dramatically over last 5-10years. There is a popular expression in today’ China “ boost GDP = boost estate price”. Provided that in the fund which flow into real estate connot really produce goods for the future, we should have a very negative view on China’s economic power, not a positive one.
Finally, I wanna say do not be fooled by figures.Do you remember the former USSR? Everyone on this planet was fooled by the figures of their economic situation.


And to all the people talking about Tibet here. How much do you know about chinese brilliant, conflictual cultural.How much do you know chinese history. Do please read through china's 5000 years' history and the most influencial ancient book in china before you post your comment.In addition, please read the World History as well, cause that will make you be aware of who are the real invaders on this planet.
I dont wanna explain anything more here, cause it will cost thousands of hundrends of hours to teach you.


Now I see why The Economist is seen as subversive by the Chinese authorities. Xinjiang is first compared to Libya by population and then Egypt by GDP per person. Is there a tab for political stability?


The best government in the world is SWITZERLAND with a revolving Presidency changed every year. A commitee runs the country with elected officials from each of the cantons. Recently the people were allowed to vote on whether guns should be allowed at home and if there were enough minarette towers. Thats democracy in action. Switzerland never goes to war in Iraq or Afghanistan. CHINA has no such illusions of military "might is right". CHINA with their one party system gets elected officials (from all the provinces) that get real results. CHINA appoints people based on ability and not if they are members of a power lobby group for big multi-national businesses. In CHINA it counts for nothing if you are super-rich and famous like Arnold Swatzenegger the former Governor California. In Britain we had a democracy until TONY BLAIR decided wars were an open invitation for his acting abilities. Iraq divided today is the price of that foolish venture. If we had not invaded IRAQ today the list of deposed Arab state dictators would have read.....TUNESIA EGYPT LIBYA and IRAQ. Tyrrants always fail in time when they become despots. WIKILEAKS was the catalyst by exposing the Tunesian leadership as the "mafia" per US Embassy cables. Julian Assange is now the man who entered the truth zone. Not allowed?