Economy - Structure & Trends

GDP - Including Regional GDP of 31 Chinese Mainland Provinces (PPP constant 2000 international $)

Note: For this table the World Bank GDP (PPP at 2000 international $) estimate for China of 6,090 billion was split up proportionally to the 31 mainland provinces of China, according to the 2003 Regional GDP published by the National Bureau of Statistics of China. Unit: Million international $ based on 2000 PPP.

Source: This figure is based on data from the World Bank's World Development Indicators, 2005 and the China Statistical Yearbook, 2004, Table 3-11 (Gross Domestic Product by Region, 2003)

The figure above shows the 123 largest economies in 2003, plus the 31 mainland provinces of China. The Chinese province of Guangdong (in the hinterland of Hong Kong), and the provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong (close to Shanghai) are already the 15th, 16th and 17th largest economies on earth (not counting China as a whole).

It is rather noteworthy that even provinces, which are hardly known outside of China, have huge economies that are comparable to well-known nations. For instance, Zhejiang province has a larger economy than Argentina, the provinces of Hebei and Henan have each larger economies than Pakistan, and Liaoning's economy is just a little smaller than that of Belgium.

This clearly illustrates that China's huge economy should be actually analyzed at the province level, which is quite comparable with "regular" countries.