China adds five new 100-billion-yuan GDP counties in 2023

China adds five new counties with GDP exceeding 100 billion yuan ($13.77 billion) in 2023, bringing the total to 59, according to data from market research firm CCID Consulting, ThePaper reported on Wednesday.

The five county-level regions are Pinghu and Ninghai in Zhejiang province, Korla in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Gongyi in Henan province and Fugu in Shaanxi province.

The total GDP of these 59 counties reached 9.6 trillion yuan, contributing 7.6 percent to the national GDP, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous year.

Kunshan's GDP exceeded 500 billion yuan, ranking it at the top of the China's 100-billion-yuan counties, followed closely by Jiangyin with a GDP of 496.05 billion yuan. Both of them are located in Jiangsu province.

These counties are vital in driving county-level economic growth, with their major enterprises generating over 13 trillion yuan in industrial output, accounting for over 10 percent of China's total.

Specifically, five of these counties exceeded 500 billion yuan in industrial output from large-scale enterprises, and 22 counties surpassed 200 billion yuan.

These counties have become a powerful support for promoting the country's new industrialization. CCID Consulting data show that in 2023, the industrial output of 48,000 large-scale enterprises in these counties accounted for over 10 percent of the national total.

They are home to nearly 1,000 specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprises, over 32,000 national high-tech companies, and more than 45,000 authorized invention patents.

As of 2023, there are 37 nationally recognized new industrialization demonstration bases located in these 100-billion-yuan GDP counties, representing 8.3 percent of the national total.