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Many Chinas? The Economic Diversity of China's Provinces
Author(s) -
Heilig Gerhard K.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
population and development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.836
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1728-4457
pISSN - 0098-7921
DOI - 10.1111/j.1728-4457.2006.00109.x
Subject(s) - china , mainland china , geography , diversity (politics) , per capita , gross domestic product , per capita income , socioeconomics , development economics , economic growth , economy , population , economics , political science , demography , sociology , archaeology , law
This note analyzes China's provincial diversity from two perspectives. First, the regional gross domestic products of China's 31 mainland provinces are compared with the national GDP of other countries. This demonstrates that China's most advanced provinces and urban areas have per capita GDP levels comparable to those of Sweden and Singapore. On the other hand, China's least developed provinces have a standard of living similar to those of Sudan and Honduras. The second part of the analysis demonstrates that China's economic diversity is not unique. In fact, European countries exhibit almost the same degree of income diversity as do Chinese provinces.