Editor’s Notes

I. China Statistical Yearbook 2024 is an annual statistical publication, which reflects comprehensively the economic and social development of China. It covers data for 2023and key statistical data in recent years and some historically important years at the national level and the local levels of province, autonomous region and municipality directly under the Central Government.

II. The Yearbook contains twenty-eight chapters: l. General Survey; 2. Population; 3. National Accounts; 4. Employment and Wages; 5. Prices; 6. People’s Livelihoods; 7. Government Finance; 8. Resources and Environment; 9. Energy; 10. Investment in Fixed Assets; 11. International Trade and Economic Cooperation; 12. Agriculture; 13. Industry; 14. Construction; 15. Wholesale and Retail Trades; 16. Transport, Postal and Telecommunication Services, and Software Industry; 17. Hotels, Catering Services and Tourism; 18. Financial Intermediation; 19. Real Estate; 20. Science and Technology; 21. Education; 22. Public Health and Social Services; 23. Culture and Sports; 24. Public Management, Social Security and Social Organizations; 25. Urban, Rural and Regional Development; 26. Main Social and Economic Indicators of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; 27. Main Social and Economic Indicators of Macao Special Administrative Region; 28. Main Social and Economic Indicators of Taiwan Province. One chapter listed as Appendix is Main Social and Economic Indicators of Other Countries/Regions.

To facilitate readers, the Brief Introduction at the beginning of each chapter provides a summary of the main contents of the chapter, data sources, statistical coverage, statistical methods and historical changes. At the end of each chapter, Explanatory Notes on Main Statistical Indicators are included.

III. The national data in this book do not include those of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Macao Special Administrative Region and Taiwan Province, except for the divisions of administrative areas, forest resources and otherwise specified. In accordance with the principles set down in the Basic Law of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and the Basic Law of Macao Special Administrative Region, statistically Hong Kong, Macao and the mainland of China are three mutually independent regions, each following its own and different statistical systems and legal provisions in conducting statistical operation independently. Statistics on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region as included in this yearbook are provided by the Census and Statistics Department of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Statistics and Census Service of the Government of Macao Special Administrative Region respectively; and are edited by the National Bureau of Statistics.

IV. Eastern region, central region, western region and northeastern region in the Yearbook are divided as following:

Eastern region with 10 provinces (municipalities) includes: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong and Hainan;

Central region with 6 provinces includes: Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei and Hunan;

Western region with 12 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) includes: Inner Mongolia, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Xizang, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Xinjiang;

Northeastern region with 3 provinces includes: Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang.

V. The units of measurement used in the Yearbook are international standard measurement units, and newly published and implemented Product Categories are uniformly used.

VI. For updated historical data, please refer to the newly published version of the Yearbook. Statistical discrepancies on totals and relative figures due to rounding are not adjusted in the Yearbook.

VII. Notations used in the Yearbook: (blank space) indicates that the data are unknown, or are not available; " # " indicates a major breakdown of the total; and " * " or " ① " indicates footnotes at the end of the table. For notations in the chapters of data on Hong Kong SAR and Macao SAR, please refer to the brief introduction or explanation in the relevant chapters.

VIII. In comparison with China Statistical Yearbook 2023, following revisions have been made in this new version in terms of the current statistical survey system and the progress of statistical work.

In order to meet the needs of economic classification in statistical surveys, the National Bureau of Statistics together with the State Administration for Market Regulation revised the Regulations on the Classification of Enterprises by Registration Status (Guotongzi [2011] No. 86) (hereinafter referred to as the original standard) and then jointly issued the Regulations on the Classification of Market Entity Statistics (Guotongzi [2023] No. 14) (hereinafter referred to as the new standard). The yearbook has made corresponding adjustments to the relevant groups according to the "new standard".

l. Revision work background

The original standard was jointly formulated and issued by the National Bureau of Statistics and the former State Administration for Industry and Commerce in 1998, and revised in 2011. Since its implementation, this standard has provided important support for conducting statistical surveys, statistical analysis, and market supervision. In recent years, new laws and regulations such as the Foreign Investment Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations on the Administration of Market Entity Registration of the People's Republic of China have been successively introduced and implemented. The original Regulations on the Administration of Company Registration of the People's Republic of China, the Regulations on the Administration of Enterprise Legal Person Registration of the People's Republic of China, and the Interim Regulations on Private Enterprises of the People's Republic of China have been abolished, and significant changes have occurred in the relevant laws and regulations on which the original standards were based. In order to adapt to the new changes in the registration and management scope of the market supervision department from "enterprises" to "market entities", and to ensure that statistical work is carried out in accordance with laws and regulations, the National Bureau of Statistics, together with the State Administration for Market Regulation, will carry out the revision of this standard from 2022. Based on extensive solicitation of opinions and suggestions from various professions, localities, and relevant departments, the Regulations on the Classification of Market Entity Statistics (the new standard) will be jointly issued in January 2023.

2. Revision of the main contents

(1) Expand the scope of application

In order to comprehensively cover the statistical survey objects, the new standard adjusts the classification scope according to the actual registration and management of market entities, expanding from enterprises to all market entities, and adding categories such as professional farmers cooperatives and individual businesses and other categories.

(2) Cancel related categories

Due to the abolition of the Provisional Regulations of the People's Republic of China on Private Enterprises, according to the Company Law of the People's Republic of China, the Law of the People's Republic of China on Sole Proprietorship Enterprises, and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Cooperative Enterprises, the private limited liability corporations and private share-holding limited corporations are respectively included in the categories of limited liability corporations and share-holding limited corporations. The private sole-proprietorship enterprises are adjusted to the sole proprietorship enterprises and the private partnership enterprises are adjusted to partnership enterprises.

(3) Adjust the classification structure

The first is about domestic invested enterprises. According to the Regulations on the Administration of Market Entity Registration of the People's Republic of China, the original classification of domestic invested enterprises, including "state-owned enterprises", "collective-owned enterprises", "share-holding cooperative enterprises", "joint ownership enterprises", "limited liability corporations", " share-holding limited corporations", "private enterprises" and "other enterprises" have been adjusted to six categories, including "limited liability corporations", "share-holding limited corporations", "non corporate legal entity", "sole proprietorship enterprises", "partnership enterprises" and "other domestic invested enterprises" with which the original "state-owned enterprises", "collective-owned enterprises", "share-holding cooperative enterprises," and "joint ownership enterprises" are included in the new category of "non corporate legal entity"; The original category of "private enterprises" has been cancelled (as mentioned in the previous paragraph). The second is about foreign invested enterprises and enterprises with investment from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. According to the Foreign Investment Law of the People's Republic of China, the original classification of foreign invested enterprises, including "Sino foreign joint ventures", "Sino foreign cooperative enterprises", "foreign funded enterprises", "foreign invested share-holding companies", and "other foreign-invested enterprises" are adjusted to four categories: "foreign invested limited liability corporations", "foreign-invested share-holding corporations", "foreign invested partnership enterprises", and "other foreign invested enterprises". Enterprises with investment from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan are adjusted according to the classification method for foreign invested enterprises.

(4) Standardize names of categories

According to the standardized names for registration management by the market supervision department, the original "state-owned enterprises" and "collective-owned enterprises" will be renamed as "state-owned enterprises" and "collective-owned enterprises" respectively.

(5) Unify domestic invested scope

According to the Foreign Investment Law of the People's Republic of China and relevant departmental regulations, market entities such as limited liability companies registered as domestic invested companies (foreign-invested enterprises investment) and share-holding limited companies registered as domestic companies (listed and foreign-invested enterprises investment), namely the reinvestment market entities of foreign-invested enterprises in China, have been adjusted from the original category of "foreign-invested enterprises" to the relevant category of "domestic enterprises" in the new standard.

In addition, in the chapter on "Resources and Environment", the data of "collapsed houses" have been added. In the chapter on " Agriculture", the data of the planting area of "soybean", "peanut", "rapeseed", "sesame", "sugarcane", "sugar beet", "flue-cured tobacco" and the output value and index of "agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery professional and auxiliary activities" have been added. In the chapter on "Industry", the output of "smartphone" have been added. In the chapter on "Public Health and Social Services", the tables which named "Health Status of Children by Region" and "Health status of Maternity Female by Region" have been added. In the chapter on "Culture and Sports", the number of "children's literature" on public libraries and number of "underage visitors" to state-owned museums have been added. In the chapter on "Urban, Rural and Regional Development", the data of "rural hydropower stations", "rural hydropower installed capacity" and "rural hydropower annual electricity generation" have been added.