The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Just Begun

Appendix B China Statistics

This short section gives a quick snapshot of some of the key metrics for China.

• Population: In 2014, China should have a population of about 1.390 billion (i.e., a bit more than 19% of the total world population). The gender imbalance means that 51.9% of the population is male (48.1% is female). The country is adding about 2 million more souls every year until it is projected that the numbers will stabilize before they start declining in 2026, by which time the count will have reached around 1.4 billion. According to the CIA World Factbook, the average age of Chinese in 2010 was close to 36, eight years older than the world average but younger than in most Western countries.
• Wealth: China's nominal gross domestic product (GDP) reached more than USD9 trillion in 2013, making it the second largest economy after the United States, having surpassed Japan in 2009 and Germany in 2007. While GDP growth was on average quite close to 10% between 1980 and 2010, the past few years have seen a moderation, and 2013 saw 7.7% growth. According to the CIA World Factbook, GDP per capita was USD9,800 in 2013, still 23% below the world average.
• City tiers: Tiers of cities in China correspond to a government definition along five different levels. The first tier is known as the provincial level—there are 27 provinces in China, but some cities are so important that they are classified at that provincial level as ‘municipalities'. These are only four: Shanghai, Beijing, ...