2023 Top 100 Counties Released: 54 Counties with Billion Billions! Which provinces do the 10 new additions come from? County | Report | Released

Introduction: There are still problems with imbalanced and insufficient development of county-level economy, a large span in the scale of county-level economy at the beginning and end, a rapid decline in the proportion of secondary industry in county-level areas, slow transformation of old and new driving forces, and relatively lagging supporting factors required for industrial development.

Author | First Financial Golden Leaf

As a fundamental unit of national economic development, county-level economy plays an important role.

According to the "2023 China County Economy Top 100 Research" released by CCID Consulting on the 25th, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Shandong Province have performed outstandingly in this year's top 100 counties, occupying 23, 16, and 13 seats respectively. Among the top 10 counties in the top 100, Jiangsu Province alone holds 6 seats and occupies the top 4. Among the top 100 counties, 54 counties have entered the "GDP Billion Club", achieving a GDP of 8.6 trillion yuan, accounting for 7.1% of the total national economy.

Yu Debiao, Business Director of CCID Consulting and Director of County Economic Research Center, stated in an interview with First Financial News that this year's reporting system has set a "double threshold" for evaluation, with GDP ≥ 60 billion yuan and general public budget revenue ≥ 2 billion yuan. A comprehensive evaluation is conducted based on four primary indicators: economic strength, growth potential, prosperity, and green level, as well as eight secondary indicators and 27 tertiary indicators. "Unlike previous years, this year we have also summarized three major development models for the top 100 counties, namely the 'wolf pack model' represented by Jiangsu and Zhejiang; the 'wild goose model' represented by Fujian, Shandong, Hubei, Sichuan, and Hunan; and the 'lion king model' represented by Guizhou, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Hebei, and Yunnan," said Yu Debiao.

Regional development is still unbalanced

The report shows that the regional distribution of county-level economy is still uneven. The eastern region of the top 100 counties holds 65 seats, the central region holds 20 seats, the western region holds 14 seats, and the northeast region only holds 1 seat. Compared with 2022, the number of counties entering the top 100 in different regions has fluctuated. The number of counties on the list in the eastern region remains unchanged, with a decrease of 2 counties in the central region, an increase of 4 counties in the western region, and a decrease of 2 counties in the northeast region. Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, and Shandong Province have performed outstandingly, occupying 23, 16, and 13 seats respectively. Among the top 10 counties in the top 100, Jiangsu Province alone holds 6 seats and occupies the top 4.

Meanwhile, county-level economy is an important support for the high-quality development of the six major economic provinces. In terms of economic size, in 2021, except for Guangdong Province, the GDP of counties under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province, Henan Province, and Sichuan Province all accounted for over 40.0% of the province's GDP. Among them, the GDP of counties under the jurisdiction of Henan Province accounted for as high as 59.3% of the province's GDP. With the adjustment of administrative divisions such as abolishing counties and establishing districts over the years, Guangdong Province has a significant characteristic of "strong districts and weak counties", but its county-level economy still maintains a rapid development momentum. The GDP of its subordinate counties increased from 1221.02 billion yuan in 2016 to 1553.14 billion yuan in 2021, with a growth rate of 27.2%.

Yu Debiao told reporters that this year's overall ranking shows a trend of stability in the eastern region, decline in the central region, and growth in the western region. Especially with the transfer of industries in the eastern and central regions and their landing in the western regions, the resource and financial advantages of the western regions are gradually expanding. From the perspective of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces with strong county economies, the total number of top 100 counties has decreased, but this is due to regional economic development, resulting in a narrowing gap between them.

The report also believes that there are still problems with imbalanced and insufficient development of the county-level economy, a large span of economic scale in the first and last parts of the county, a rapid decline in the proportion of secondary industry in the county, slow conversion of old and new driving forces, and relatively lagging supporting factors required for industrial development.

Ten new counties with billions of yuan added

This year's report shows that in 2022, the total number of "100 billion counties" reached 54, with a GDP of 8.6 trillion yuan, accounting for 7.1% of the total national economy. In 2022, the average general public budget revenue of "100 billion counties" reached 10.8 billion yuan.

Among them, Kunshan City ranks first, with a regional GDP exceeding 500 billion yuan. Compared to last year, the nominal GDP growth rate of 7 out of 10 newly added counties, including Ejin Horo Banner, Wafangdian City, Dongtai City, Gaoyou City, Xiantao City, Peixian County, Minhou County, Zoucheng City, Yizheng City, and Shouguang City, exceeded 6%.

The "Hundred Billion Counties" exhibit six typical development models, namely the innovation driven model of the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration, the industrial cluster driven model of the Guangdong Fujian Zhejiang coastal urban agglomeration, the regional integration driven model of the Changsha Zhuzhou Xiangtan urban agglomeration, the traditional industrial upgrading driven model of the Shandong Peninsula urban agglomeration, the resource driven model of the Hubao Eyu urban agglomeration, and the core enterprise driven model of Renhuai City.

"Taking hundreds of billions of counties as an example, it should be recognized that there are more counties whose total economic output will exceed hundreds of billions or even some prefecture level cities. Therefore, it is necessary to appropriately raise the target, innovate the development model of county economies, and identify the ignition point to enhance the position of hundreds of billions of counties in a strong province," said Yu Debiao.