Shanghai, Beijing, Zhejiang Top China’s Disposable Income List for Q1 2018

China’s National Bureau of Statistics and its local offices have just issued the average disposable income figures for all of mainland China’s 31 province-level entities in the first quarter of 2018.

The data puts Shanghai at the top of the list with average disposable income of 17,277 yuan, followed by Beijing (15,767 yuan).

Tianjin, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were all host to disposable incomes in excess of 10,000 yuan, while Tibet, Xinjiang, Gansu and Guizhou were all at the bottom of the list, with average disposable incomes of under 5,000 yuan.

Shen Lisheng (沈利生) from the China Academy of Social Sciences that these poorer inland provinces are nonetheless seeing more rapid growth in consumption-related retail sales, with some regions posting increases of at least 10%.

“These western regions are still at the stage of accelerated development of an affluent society…upgrades in consumption are accelerating, so consumption growth appears quite high,” said Shen.

“However, with regard to developed areas such as Shanghai, because standard consumption has been satisfied, consumption-related retail growth does not appear high.”

Chinese provinces ranked by average disposable income in Q1 2018