National Economy Pushed Forward with Innovation-led and High-quality Development and Expected Targets Achieved Successfully in 2025

National Bureau of Statistics of China

19 January 2026

In 2025, in the face of complex changes in domestic and global economic environment,  under the strong leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, all regions and departments strictly implemented the decisions and arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, stayed firmly committed to the new development philosophy and high-quality development, balanced domestic and international imperatives, ensured both development and security, implemented more proactive and effective macro policies, and made thorough efforts to develop a unified national market. As a result, the national economy pushed forward with innovation-led and high-quality development despite mounting economic pressure. High-quality development registered new achievements, and the major targets and tasks of economic and social development were achieved successfully. The 14th Five-Year Plan got a successful conclusion.

According to preliminary estimates, the gross domestic product (GDP) was 140,187.9 billion yuan in 2025, an increase of 5.0 percent over the previous year at constant prices. By industries, the value added of the primary industry was 9,334.7 billion yuan, up by 3.9 percent over the previous year, that of the secondary industry was 49,965.3 billion yuan, up by 4.5 percent, and that of the tertiary industry was 80,887.9 billion yuan, up by 5.4 percent. By quarters, the GDP for the first quarter went up by 5.4 percent year on year, up by 5.2 percent for the second quarter, 4.8 percent for the third quarter and 4.5 percent for the fourth quarter. The GDP for the fourth quarter increased by 1.2 percent quarter on quarter.

1. Grain Witnessed Increased Output and Good Harvest and Animal Husbandry Grew Steadily.

The total output of grain in 2025 was 714.88 million tons, an increase of 8.38 million tons over the previous year, or up by 1.2 percent. Of this total, the output of summer grain was 149.75 million tons, down by 0.1 percent, that of early rice was 28.51 million tons, up by 1.2 percent, and that of autumn grain reached 536.62 million tons, up by 1.5 percent. By species, the output of wheat was 140.07 million tons, the same as that of the previous year; corn, 301.24 million tons, up by 2.1 percent; rice, 209.04 million tons, up by 0.7 percent; and soybean, 20.91 million tons, up by 1.3 percent. The total output of pork, beef, mutton and poultry in 2025 was 100.72 million tons, up by 4.2 percent over the previous year, surpassing 100 million tons for the first time. Of this total, the output of pork was 59.38 million tons, up by 4.1 percent; beef, 8.01 million tons, up by 2.8 percent; mutton, 4.96 million tons, down by 4.2 percent; and poultry, 28.37 million tons, up by 6.7 percent. The production of milk reached 40.91 million tons, up by 0.3 percent and that of eggs stood at 34.98 million tons, down by 2.5 percent. In 2025, 719.73 million pigs were slaughtered, up by 2.4 percent, and 429.67 million pigs were registered in stock at the end of the year, up by 0.5 percent.

2. Industrial Production Grew Fast and Equipment Manufacturing and High-tech Manufacturing Enjoyed a Good Momentum of Growth.

In 2025, the total value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size increased by 5.9 percent over the previous year. In terms of sectors, the value added of mining was up by 5.6 percent, that of manufacturing up by 6.4 percent, and that of production and supply of electricity, heat power, gas and water up by 2.3 percent. The value added of equipment manufacturing went up by 9.2 percent, and that of high-tech manufacturing up by 9.4 percent, 3.3 percentage points and 3.5 percentage points faster than that of the industrial enterprises above the designated size respectively. In terms of ownership, the value added of the state holding enterprises grew by 4.6 percent, that of the share-holding enterprises was up by 6.3 percent, that of the enterprises funded by foreign investors or investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan increased by 3.9 percent, and that of private enterprises was up by 5.3 percent. By products, the production of 3D printing devices, industrial robots and new energy vehicles grew by 52.5 percent, 28.0 percent and 25.1 percent respectively. In December, the total value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size grew by 5.2 percent year on year, or up by 0.49 percent month on month. In December, the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index stood at 50.1 percent, 0.9 percentage points higher than that of the previous month; the Production and Operation Expectation Index was 55.5 percent, up by 2.4 percentage points. In the first eleven months, the total profits made by industrial enterprises above the designated size were 6,626.9 billion yuan, up by 0.1 percent year on year.

3. Service Sector Grew Steadily and Modern Services Enjoyed Sound Development.

The value added of service sector went up by 5.4 percent over the previous year. Specifically, the value added of information transmission, software and information technology services, leasing and business services, transport, storage and postal services, wholesales and retails, and accommodation and catering grew by 11.1 percent, 10.3 percent, 5.2 percent, 5.0 percent and 4.9 percent respectively. In December, the Index of Services Production went up by 5.0 percent year on year. Specifically, that of information transmission, software and information technology service, leasing and business services, and finance grew by 14.8 percent, 11.3 percent and 6.5 percent respectively. In the first eleven months, the business revenue of service enterprises above the designated size grew by 7.8 percent year on year. In December, the Business Activity Index for Services was 49.7 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than that of the previous month. The Business Activity Expectation Index for Services was 56.4 percent, up by 0.5 percentage points. Specifically, the Business Activity Index for industries like telecommunications, broadcast, television and satellite transmission services, monetary and financial services, and capital market services stayed within the high expansion range of 60.0 percent and above.

4. Market Sales Scaled up and Services Retails Grew Fast.

In 2025, the total retail sales of consumer goods reached 50,120.2 billion yuan, up by 3.7 percent over the previous year. Analyzed by different areas, the retail sales of consumer goods in urban areas reached 43,297.2 billion yuan, up by 3.6 percent; and that in rural areas stood at 6,823.0 billion yuan, up by 4.1 percent. Grouped by consumption patterns, the retail sales of goods were 44,322.0 billion yuan, up by 3.8 percent; and the income of catering was 5,798.2 billion yuan, up by 3.2 percent. The sales of basic living goods and certain upgraded goods witnessed good momentum of growth. The retail sales of communication equipment, cultural and office supplies, sports and recreational articles, household appliances and audio-visual equipment, and grain, oil and food by enterprises above the designated size grew by 20.9 percent, 17.3 percent, 15.7 percent, 11.0 percent and 9.3 percent respectively. The online retail sales reached 15,972.2 billion yuan, up by 8.6 percent over the previous year. Specifically, the online retail sales of physical goods were 13,092.3 billion yuan, up by 5.2 percent, accounting for 26.1 percent of the total retail sales of consumer goods. In December, the total retail sales of consumer goods went up by 0.9 percent year on year, or down by 0.12 percent month on month. The retail sales of services in 2025 grew by 5.5 percent over the previous year. Specifically, the retail sales of cultural, sports and leisure services, communication information services, tourism consultation and rental services, and transportation services grew fast.

5. Investment in Fixed Assets Dropped Year on Year and Investment in Manufacturing Sustained Growth.

In 2025, the investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) reached 48,518.6 billion yuan, down by 3.8 percent over that of the previous year; the investment in fixed assets went down by 0.5 percent with the investment in real estate development deducted. Specifically, the investment in infrastructure dropped by 2.2 percent; that in manufacturing grew by 0.6 percent; and that in real estate development declined by 17.2 percent. The floor space of newly-built commercial buildings sold was 881.01 million square meters, down by 8.7 percent; the total sales of newly-built commercial buildings were 8,393.7 billion yuan, down by 12.6 percent. By industry, the investment in the primary industry went up by 2.3 percent, that in the secondary industry up by 2.5 percent, and that in the tertiary industry down by 7.4 percent. The private investment declined by 6.4 percent, or down by 1.9 percent with the investment in real estate development deducted. Among high-tech industries, the investment in information services and aerospace vehicle and equipment manufacturing grew by 28.4 percent and 16.9 percent respectively. In December, the investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households) declined by 1.13 percent month on month.

6. Imports and Exports of Goods Grew Steadily and Trade Structure Continued to Optimize.

In 2025, the total value of imports and exports of goods was 45,468.7 billion yuan, an increase of 3.8 percent over that of the previous year. Specifically, the total value of exports was 26,989.2 billion yuan, up by 6.1 percent, and the total value of imports was 18,479.5 billion yuan, up by 0.5 percent. The imports and exports by private enterprises increased by 7.1 percent, accounting for 57.3 percent of the total value of imports and exports, 1.8 percentage points higher than that of the previous year. The imports and exports with the Belt and Road partner countries grew by 6.3 percent, accounting for 51.9 percent of the total value of imports and exports. The exports of high-tech products grew by 13.2 percent. In December, the total value of imports and exports of goods was 4,263.0 billion yuan, up by 4.9 percent year on year. Among which, the total value of exports was 2,535.9 billion yuan, up by 5.2 percent; that of imports was 1,727.1 billion yuan, up by 4.4 percent.

7. Consumer Price was Generally Stable and Core CPI Registered Moderate Rebound.

In 2025, the consumer price index (CPI) maintained the same level as that of the previous year. Grouped by commodity categories, prices for food, tobacco and alcohol went down by 0.7 percent; clothing up by 1.5 percent; housing up by 0.1 percent; articles and services for daily use up by 0.9 percent; transportation and communication down by 2.6 percent; education, culture and recreation up by 0.8 percent; medical services and health care up by 0.8 percent; and other articles and services up by 9.3 percent. In terms of food, tobacco and alcohol prices, the price for pork went down by 6.1 percent, fresh vegetables down by 3.9 percent, grain down by 1.0 percent, and fresh fruit up by 1.2 percent. The core CPI excluding the prices of food and energy grew by 0.7 percent, 0.2 percentage points higher than that of the previous year. In December, the CPI went up by 0.8 percent year on year, 0.1 percentage points higher than that of the previous month; the month-on-month growth was 0.2 percent. In 2025, the producer prices for industrial products went down by 2.6 percent over that of the previous year; in December, the prices went down by 1.9 percent year on year, or up by 0.2 percent month on month. In 2025, the purchasing prices for industrial producers went down by 3.0 percent over that of the previous year; in December, the prices dropped by 2.1 percent year on year, or up by 0.4 percent month on month.

8. Employment was Generally Stable and Urban Surveyed Unemployment Rate was Steady.

In 2025, the urban surveyed unemployment rate averaged 5.2 percent. In December, the urban surveyed unemployment rate was 5.1 percent. The surveyed unemployment rate of population with local household registration was 5.3 percent and that of population with non-local household registration was 4.7 percent, of which, the rate of population with non-local agricultural household registration was 4.4 percent. The urban surveyed unemployment rate in 31 major cities was 5.1 percent. The employees of enterprises worked 48.6 hours per week on average. In 2025, the number of rural migrant workers totaled 301.15 million, 1.42 million more than that of the previous year, or up by 0.5 percent. Specifically, local migrant workers totaled 121.09 million, up by 0.1 percent; outbound migrant workers totaled 180.06 million, up by 0.8 percent.

9. Household Income Continued to Increase and Income Growth of Rural Households Outpaced That of Urban Households.

In 2025, the nationwide per capita disposable income of households was 43,377 yuan, a nominal growth of 5.0 percent over that of the previous year, or a real increase of 5.0 percent after deducting price factors. In terms of permanent residence, the per capita disposable income of urban households was 56,502 yuan, a nominal growth of 4.3 percent over the previous year or a real growth of 4.2 percent. The per capita disposable income of rural households was 24,456 yuan, a nominal growth of 5.8 percent over the previous year or a real growth of 6.0 percent. The median of the nationwide per capita disposable income of households was 36,231 yuan, a nominal increase of 4.4 percent over the previous year. Grouped by income quintile, the per capita disposable income of low-income group reached 10,150 yuan, the lower-middle-income group 22,702 yuan, the middle-income group 35,536 yuan, the upper-middle-income group 55,586 yuan, and the high-income group 103,778 yuan. In 2025, the nationwide per capita consumption expenditure was 29,476 yuan, a nominal growth of 4.4 percent over the previous year, or a real growth of 4.4 percent after deducting price factors. The per capita consumption expenditure on food, tobacco and alcohol accounted for 29.3 percent of the per capita consumption expenditure (Engel’s coefficient), down by 0.5 percentage points compared with that of the previous year. The nationwide per capita consumption expenditure on services went up by 4.5 percent, accounting for 46.1 percent of the per capita consumption expenditure, the same as that of the previous year.

10. Total Population Went down and Urbanization Rate Continued to Grow.

By the end of 2025, the national population was 1,404.89 million (including the population of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen, but excluding residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and foreigners living in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities), a decrease of 3.39 million over that at the end of 2024. In 2025, the number of births was 7.92 million with a birth rate of 5.63 per thousand; the number of deaths was 11.31 million with a mortality rate of 8.04 per thousand; the natural population growth rate was -2.41 per thousand. In terms of gender, the male population was 716.85 million, and the female population was 688.04 million; the sex ratio of the total population was 104.19 (the female is 100). In terms of age structure, the population aged 16 to 59 was 851.36 million, accounting for 60.6 percent of the total population; the population aged 60 and over was 323.38 million, accounting for 23.0 percent of the total population. Specifically, the population aged 65 and over was 223.65 million, accounting for 15.9 percent of the total population. In terms of urban-rural structure, the permanent residents in urban areas were 953.80 million, an increase of 10.30 million over the end of the previous year; the permanent residents in rural areas were 451.09 million, a decrease of 13.69 million. The share of urban population in the total population (urbanization rate) was 67.89 percent, 0.89 percentage points higher than that at the end of the previous year. In terms of education level, the average years of schooling among the population aged 16 to 59 reached 11.3 years, 0.1 years higher than that of the previous year. 

Generally speaking, the national economy sustained momentum of steady progress in 2025 despite multiple pressures, and high-quality development registered new achievements. However, we must be aware that the impact of changes in the external environment is growing, the contradiction of strong supply and weak demand in the domestic market is prominent, and the numerous long-standing issues and new challenges still remain in the economic development. At the next stage, we must follow the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement thearrangements made by the 20th CPC National Congress, its subsequent plenary sessions and the Central Economic Work Conference, adhere to the principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, and improve quality and increase efficiency. We must adopt more proactive and effective macro policies, continue to expand domestic demand, improve the supply, optimize allocation of new resources and make the best use of existing ones. We must develop new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions, advance the construction of a unified national market in greater depth, and promote effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth of the economy, so as to get the 15th Five-Year Plan period off to a good start.

Notes:

1. The growth rate of GDP and its sub-items are calculated at constant prices. The growth rates of value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size and its sub-items are calculated at comparable prices. Both are real growth rates. The growth rates of other indicators are nominal growth by using current prices unless otherwise specified.

2. According to the auto-revision function of the seasonal adjustment model, revisions are made to quarter-on-quarter growth of GDP and to month-on-month changes of the value added of industrial enterprises above the designated size, investment in fixed assets (excluding rural households), and total retail sales of consumer goods. The revised figures, quarter-on-quarter GDP growth for the fourth quarter of 2025 and month-on-month changes of other indicators for December 2025 are as follows:

The quarter-on-quarter growth of GDP in 2024 and 2025 are 1.3 percent, 1.0 percent, 1.4 percent, 1.6 percent, 1.2 percent, 1.0 percent, 1.1 percent and 1.2 percent respectively.

Month-on-Month Growth Rate of Other Indicators in Every Month of 2025

3. Industrial enterprises above the designated size are industrial enterprises with annual revenue from principal business over 20 million yuan.

As industrial enterprises above the designated size change every year, to ensure the data comparability between years, the coverage of the data of the same period last year used for estimating year-on-year growth rates like that of products output, are as consistent as possible with the current period and different from the coverage of the data published last year. The main reasons are as follows: First, the statistical units change. Every year, some enterprises are included in the survey as they meet the threshold, while some enterprises are removed from the survey because of downsizing. Besides, enterprises that have newly gone into operation, been bankrupted, canceled their registrations or had their business licenses revoked also cause impact. Second, duplicated outputs across regions of enterprise groups have been removed based on the ad hoc surveys since duplication is found in the products output of some enterprise groups.

4. The Index of Services Production is the change of production in the reporting period compared to the base period with the price factors deducted.

5. The scope of the total retail sales of consumer goods include all legal entities, establishments and self-employed units involved in retail trades or providing catering services. Specifically, businesses above the designated size include wholesale enterprises (businesses, self-employed units), retail enterprises (businesses, self-employed units) and lodging and catering enterprises (businesses, self-employed units) with annual revenue from principal business over 20 million yuan, 5 million yuan and 2 million yuan respectively.

As the wholesale, retail, and lodging and catering enterprises (businesses, self-employed units) above the designated size change every year, to ensure the data comparability between years, the coverage of the data of the same period last year used for estimating year-on-year growth rates like that of the retail sales of consumer goods by businesses above the designated size is consistent with the current period and different from the coverage of data published last year. The main reasons are: some enterprises (businesses, self-employed units) are included in the survey as they meet the threshold, while some enterprises (businesses, self-employed units) are removed from the survey because of downsizing every year. Besides, enterprises (businesses, self-employed units) that have newly gone into operation, been bankrupted, canceled their registrations or had their business licenses revoked also cause impact.

Online retail sales refer to the retail sales of goods and services realized through internet trading platforms (including self-built websites and third-party platforms). Goods and services include physical goods and non-physical goods (e.g. virtual goods and services).

The total retail sales of consumer goods include the online retail sales of physical goods, but not the non-physical goods.

Data of total retail sales of consumer goods and online retail sales were revised according to the result of the Fifth National Economic Census. The monthly growth rates of relevant indicators of total retail sales of consumer goods and online retail sales in 2025 are calculated on a comparable basis.

6. The retail sales of services refer to the total value of services directly provided by enterprises (establishments, self-employed units) to individuals and other units for non-production and non-operating purposes in the form of transactions. It aims to reflect the value of services with the nature of consumption sold by service providers in monetary terms, including the retail sales of services in transportation, accommodation, catering, education, health, sports, entertainment, and other fields.

7. Data of investment in fixed assets of the same period last year were revised according to the results of methodology reform of investment statistics, the Fifth National Economic Census and the statistical law enforcement. The growth rates of investment in fixed assets are calculated on a comparable basis.

8. Data of imports and exports are from the General Administration of Customs.

9. Employed people refer to people aged 16 and above who have the ability to work and engage in gainful employment for remuneration payment or business income.

10. Rural migrant workers refer to those who work in urban areas, or in the non-agriculture sectors in local or other areas for 6 months and above with their permanent household registrations being in rural areas. Local migrant workers refer to those who work in the administration area where they register their households permanently. Outbound migrant workers refer to those who work in areas other than the administration area where they register their households permanently.

11. The median of the nationwide per capita disposable income of households refers to the per capita disposable income of households which lies in the middle of all surveyed households ranked from low to high on the basis of per capita disposable income level.

The per capita disposable income of nationwide households by income quintile refers to the five equal partitions of all surveyed households, who are ranked from low to high based on per capita income level. The top 20 percent with the lowest income are classified as low-income group, and the other four levels are lower-middle-income group, middle-income group, upper-middle-income group and high-income group.

12. Due to the rounding-off reasons, the subentries may not add up to the aggregate totals.

In case of any differences between English translation and the original Chinese text, the Chinese edition shall prevail.