China only just missed the income cutoff to become a high-income country this year

In July every year, the World Bank sorts countries into income groups based on their per capita gross national income (GNI) in the previous year.

In this year’s update, China was very close to entering the high-income group: its GNI per person was $14,230; just short of the World Bank’s high-income threshold of $14,375.

The chart puts this in perspective. The bars show GNI per person for countries with at least 25 million people, ordered from poorest to richest.

Beyond income, China is already comparable to high-income countries in many dimensions. Its spending on research and development as a share of GDP, for example, is higher than in many European countries. It’s also a global leader in several technology fields, including clean energy and artificial intelligence.

But in other ways, China is closer to middle-income countries. Its productivity, measured by GDP per hour worked, for example, remains much lower than in high-income countries.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from Our World in Data. “China only just missed the income cutoff to become a high-income country this year” by Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, published by Our World in Data under CC BY 4.0. Changed here: set as a page, its interactive charts shown as pictures. Data from third parties keeps its own licence.

Nobody has written it yet — it is the source material at a new address, which is why search engines are asked to skip it and why no one earns from it. It is up for grabs: take it on, and it is yours to rewrite and to earn from.