Generally speaking, large cities with developed economies have more employment opportunities, higher wages and attract more population inflows. So what are the income levels of 15 new first-tier cities besides the four first-tier cities?
According to the public information, the First Financial Reporter combed and counted the per capita disposable income data of residents in 15 new first-tier cities and found that Suzhou has the highest per capita income level among the 15 new first-tier cities, followed by Hangzhou and Nanjing, and the per capita income of these three cities exceeded 60,000 yuan; Changsha leads in the central and western regions, and surpasses Qingdao and Tianjin in the east.
According to the Ranking of Commercial Charms of Cities in 2020 released by CBN New First-tier Cities Research Institute in June 2020, the 15 new first-tier cities in 2020 are: Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Xi ‘an, Tianjin, Suzhou, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Changsha, Dongguan, Shenyang, Qingdao, Hefei and Foshan.
Three cities exceed 60 thousand yuan
The data shows that among the 15 new first-tier cities, 5 cities have a per capita income of over 50,000 yuan in 2020, among which 3 cities have a per capita income of over 60,000 yuan, all of which are from the Yangtze River Delta, namely Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing.
Statistics show that in 2020, the per capita disposable income of all residents in Suzhou exceeded 60,000 yuan, reaching 62,582 yuan, an increase of 4.1% over 2019. This income level is second only to the four first-tier cities of Guangzhou, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, ranking fifth in the country.
The gap between urban and rural areas in Suzhou is also small. Among them, the per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents was 70,996 yuan and 37,563 yuan, up 3.4% and 6.9% respectively. The income growth rate of rural residents is 3.5 percentage points faster than that of urban residents, and the income ratio of urban and rural residents is 1.889, which is 0.063 lower than that of 2019.
Ding Changfa, an associate professor in the Department of Economics of Xiamen University, analyzed the First Financial Reporter that the spillover effect of Suzhou’s back to Shanghai and its acceptance of Shanghai is very significant. Whether it is the development of Suzhou’s export-oriented economy after the reform and opening up or the development of high-tech industries in recent years, Shanghai’s service and radiation-driven role are very important to it.
As the leader of ordinary prefecture-level cities, Suzhou has always been praised as "the most cattle prefecture-level city" by the outside world. In 2020, Suzhou will achieve a regional GDP of 2,017.05 billion yuan. This is the sixth city in China whose GDP has exceeded 2 trillion yuan, and it is also the only ordinary prefecture-level city among the six cities. In 2020, the number of high-tech enterprises declared, recognized, net increased and effective in Suzhou reached a record high. At the end of the year, the number of effective high-tech enterprises reached 9,772, approaching 10,000, ranking fifth in the country after continuing to rank among the four first-tier cities.
Moreover, several county-level cities under the jurisdiction of Suzhou, such as Kunshan, Zhangjiagang and Changshu, have long been among the top 100 counties in China. Among them, Kunshan has been ranked first in the ranking of the top 100 counties and cities in China for more than ten years, and is known as "the strongest county in China".
After Suzhou, the per capita income of Hangzhou also reached 61,879 yuan. Zhejiang, where Hangzhou is located, is the province with the most developed private economy. As the provincial capital, Hangzhou has gathered many large private enterprise headquarters. After the new century, Hangzhou’s information economy has dominated the country and developed into China’s "e-commerce capital". According to the data of Hangzhou Municipal Bureau of Statistics, in 2020, the added value of the core industries of digital economy in the city was 429 billion yuan, up by 13.3%, 9.4 percentage points higher than the GDP growth rate, accounting for 26.6% of GDP, up by 1.9 percentage points over the previous year.
Under the guidance of the information economy, the income level of Hangzhou has been rising, which has also attracted a large number of talents. According to the "China City Talent Attraction Ranking" jointly launched by Zhaopin and Evergrande Research Institute last year, 28.8% of talents from Hangzhou flowed to IT, communication, electronics and Internet industries. From the source of talents, the total proportion of talents from Shanghai and Beijing is 23.6%. The talents needed for the development of Hangzhou are mainly in first-tier cities, and Hangzhou also has the ability to win talents from first-tier cities.
As the capital of Jiangsu, the second largest economic province, Nanjing’s GDP ranks among the top ten in China for the first time in 2020. Residents’ income grew steadily. In 2020, the per capita disposable income of residents was 60,606 yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%, which was the first time that it exceeded 60,000 yuan.
According to the data of Tianyancha, during the five years from 2016 to 2020, the annual registered growth rate of enterprises in Nanjing has been stable at more than 12%, and the growth rate in the past three years is higher than that in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.
Changsha overtook Qingdao and Tianjin.
After Su Hangning, there are two new first-tier cities from the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan and Foshan. The per capita income of residents in the two cities is almost the same, which is 56,533 yuan and 56,245 yuan respectively. Generally speaking, among all cities in the Pearl River Delta, including Dongguan and Foshan, except Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the average per capita income of other cities in the Pearl River Delta is lower than that in the Yangtze River Delta.
According to an analysis by Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics, on the whole, except for Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the living standards of the nine cities in Greater Bay Area Pearl River Delta can be comparable to those of the cities in the Yangtze River Delta region, and it is difficult for other cities to compare with the major cities in the Yangtze River Delta region. The overall income level of residents is obviously lower than that in the Yangtze River Delta region, and the income gap is also higher than that in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Peng Peng, executive president of Guangdong Provincial System Reform Research Association, analyzed the first financial reporter that the original industrial structure in Guangdong was mainly based on three supplies and one supplement, with more labor-intensive enterprises and more migrant workers. In contrast, the original state-owned enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta are more, and there are more businesses, and the overall income level is higher.
Generally speaking, the collective economy in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces is more developed, and there are also many large enterprises. The collective economy is relatively standardized, and the income obtained by ordinary people from the collective economy will be relatively high. The private economy in the Pearl River Delta is relatively developed, and the statistics are relatively less standardized.
After Dongguan and Foshan, among the 15 new first-tier cities, Changsha, which is from the central part, ranks sixth. It is worth noting that Changsha’s per capita income not only leads the cities in the central and western regions, but also exceeds Qingdao and Tianjin in the east, which is quite dazzling.
In recent years, Changsha’s equipment manufacturing industry, cultural industry, medicine and automobile are very prominent. Taking the equipment manufacturing industry as an example, in recent years, Sany Heavy Industry, Zoomlion, Shanhe Intelligent and other equipment manufacturing enterprises have emerged in Changsha. The developed real economy is a solid foundation for Changsha to achieve a higher income level of residents.
It is noteworthy that Changsha has not only high income, but also a low level of housing prices, which has always been a model of "high income and low housing prices". Not long ago, Zheng Jianxin, deputy secretary of Changsha Municipal Party Committee and mayor, revealed in an exclusive interview with Xinhua News Agency’s Outlook Oriental Weekly that Changsha is now the city with the lowest ratio of house price to income among all big cities in China. An ordinary family can buy a house of 100 square meters after working for 6.4 years, and young people can easily pay down payment for the house without their parents and partners. He also said that he will continue to control the house price and build a number of "good quality and low price" youth apartments for newly graduated college students.
At present, among the 15 new first-tier cities, there are still three cities whose per capita income is below the 40,000 yuan mark, namely Chongqing, Xi ‘an in the west and Zhengzhou from the central region.
Among them, although Zhengzhou’s economy has developed rapidly in recent years, there are still obvious shortcomings. Niu Fengrui, a researcher at the Urban Development and Environment Research Center of China Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed CBN. Compared with Nanjing, Wuhan and Chengdu, as well as Hefei and Changsha, Zhengzhou has fewer first-class universities and scientific research institutions, and its overall science and technology innovation ability is not outstanding. The development level of emerging industries will also affect the income level of residents.
On the other hand, the income level of all residents in a city is not only affected by industrial development, but also closely related to the urban structure and urbanization level of the city. For example, some new first-tier cities have more counties and county-level cities under their jurisdiction, and the proportion of agricultural population is relatively high, which also affects the income of all residents. Therefore, to measure the income level of a city, we should also refer to the per capita disposable income level of urban residents.
For example, in 2020, the per capita disposable income of all residents in Chengdu was 42,075 yuan, ranking 12th among 15 cities. However, the per capita disposable income of urban residents in Chengdu is 48,593 yuan, ranking ninth, surpassing Hefei, Tianjin and Shenyang.
Source of data: First Financial Reporter combs according to public data statistics.
It should be noted that the data published by Wuhan, Hefei and Shenyang only include the disposable income data of urban and rural residents, but not the disposable income data of all residents. According to the permanent population and urbanization rate of these cities in 2019, the First Financial Reporter calculated the per capita disposable income data of all residents, which may have certain errors with the final actual data, and is for reference only.