As the economy enters a new stage of transformation and upgrading, the leading role of the economic market in driving the regional economy becomes more and more obvious.
So who is the largest economic city in each province?
A reporter from China Business News combed through the top three cities in the total GDP of 27 provinces other than municipalities and found that 20 provincial capital cities are the largest economic cities in their provinces, and 7 non-provincial capital cities exceed the provincial capitals of their provinces. The city has become the first economic city in the province. These non-capital cities are mainly located in coastal areas.
At the same time, judging from the ratio of the first and second GDP cities in each province, the capital cities of Sichuan and Hubei in the central and western regions are ranked first.
It should be noted that since Xining's 2019 data has not been released, the 2018 data is used here.
Corresponding data for other cities in Qinghai also use 2018 data.
7 non-provincial capital cities counterattack
Statistics show that among the leading cities in 27 provinces, there are 8 cities with GDP exceeding the trillion yuan mark, namely Shenzhen, Suzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Qingdao, Zhengzhou and Changsha.
The total GDP of the provinces where these cities are located is among the top ten provinces in the country.
This also shows that for provinces with large GDP, the total amount of head cities will also be larger; on the other hand, the head cities have large economic aggregates, which can also drive the economic development of the provinces where they are located.
In addition to these eight cities, there are three leading cities in Quanzhou, Hefei and Xi'an that are in the 900 billion yuan echelon and are about to enter the trillions.
Among them, Fujian, where Quanzhou is located, ranks among the top ten in terms of total provincial economy, Anhui is a populous province in the central region, and Xi'an is a leading city in the northwest and a central city in the region.
From the 27 leading cities, 20 are provincial capital cities, which means that 7 non-provincial capital cities have surpassed the provincial capitals of their provinces and become the leaders of their provinces.
The seven cities are Shenzhen in Guangdong, Quanzhou in Fujian, Suzhou in Jiangsu, Qingdao in Shandong, Dalian in Liaoning, Tangshan in Hebei, and Ordos in Inner Mongolia.
Of these 7 non-capital cities, 6 are located in coastal areas.
Niu Fengrui, a researcher at the Urban Development and Environmental Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, analyzed to a reporter from China Business News that the main reason why the eastern coastal area has become an economically developed area is that there are more economic clusters.
Many provinces in the coastal areas have two sub-provincial cities, forming a "twin star" model. Some provinces have not only two but even more.
The economic aggregates of the coastal areas are also relatively large, and it is impossible for them to gather in provincial capitals.
For example, Guangdong, the largest economic province, not only has two first-tier cities, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, but also two second-tier cities, Foshan and Dongguan.
Jiangsu, the second largest economic province, also has three second-tier cities, Nanjing, Suzhou and Wuxi.
Zhejiang, the fourth largest economic province, has three central cities: Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wenzhou.
Niu Fengrui said that the coastal multi-dual center and multi-center model are caused by a variety of factors, such as location, resource endowment, and policy factors.
Taking policy factors as an example, cities in special economic zones and 14 coastal open cities have a greater impact on the current urban structure.
At the same time, the cities currently listed in separate plans are also located in coastal areas.
Among them, the separate plan system has largely affected the urban structure of several coastal provinces.
For example, among the current five cities separately listed in the plan, Shenzhen, Qingdao, and Dalian have significantly surpassed the capitals of their provinces in terms of economic aggregates and per capita income.
As the only sub-provincial city in Fujian, Xiamen, although its economic aggregate is not as good as that of Fuzhou, it also surpasses Fuzhou in terms of per capita income and influence.
Among the capitals of the provinces where the five cities are listed separately, only Hangzhou maintains a “strong position” relative to Ningbo, surpassing Ningbo in terms of economic aggregates and new economic development.
Peng Peng, the executive chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Institutional Reform Research Association, analyzed to a reporter from China Business News that there are two factors for the good development of the cities separately listed. One is that these cities can become cities that are separately listed, indicating that their economic development is better; On the one hand, the separate planning system has also greatly promoted the development of these cities. For some cities and enterprises, they have delegated some autonomy, so that they have more room for development and are conducive to mobilizing local governments. Positivity.
In addition to planning separate cities, the counterattacks in Suzhou, Quanzhou, Tangshan, and Ordos also have their own characteristics.
For example, after the reform and opening up, the southern Jiangsu area near Shanghai relied on the development of export-oriented industries, and Suzhou, which was adjacent to Shanghai, through the division of labor and cooperation with Shanghai, the industrial economy developed rapidly and became the city with the largest industrial output value in the country.
Similarly, in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration, Tangshan is a prominent heavy industry city.
Peng Peng said that after the reform and opening up, the core urban agglomeration has had a great impact on the city. Tangshan was greatly influenced by the two major cities of Beijing and Tianjin, and Suzhou was greatly driven by the radiation of Shanghai.
Although Quanzhou is only an ordinary prefecture-level city, it is a famous commercial town in history. It is located in southern Fujian with a strong commercial tradition. After the reform and opening up, the textile and footwear industries have developed rapidly.
In addition, among the 7 non-provincial capital leading cities, the only city from outside the coast is Ordos, which is mainly due to the rapid economic development driven by the coal energy industry in the new century.
Ye Qing, a professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, analyzed to a reporter from China Business News that developed provinces often have a political, cultural and educational center, and an economic center, while the central and western regions often combine these centers.
The resources in the central and western regions are relatively small, and limited resources tend to be concentrated in provincial capitals, while the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta have more resources and will not be concentrated in one spot.
In addition, the developed coastal city clusters are very dense, resources are easily dispersed, and everyone develops together with strong mobility.
One result of the two is that the cities in the central and western regions are very different, and the agglomeration of talents, capital, and industries are very different.
Prominent advantages of provincial capital cities
Although seven non-provincial capital cities have counterattacked and become the first place in the province’s economy, in recent years, as the economy has entered a new stage of transformation and upgrading, the advantages of the provincial capital cities such as transportation hubs and higher education are gradually emerging, even if The non-provincial capital cities are surpassing, and these cities are gradually narrowing the gap.
Taking Fuzhou as an example, data shows that Fuzhou’s GDP reached 939.2 billion yuan in 2019, equivalent to 94.4% of the leader Quanzhou’s, while in 2016, this ratio was only 86%.
Ding Changfa, associate professor of the Department of Economics of Xiamen University, believes that as the provincial capital, Fuzhou is the center of politics, culture, education, and medical care in the province. It has concentrated the province's best element resources and has obvious advantages. In the future, Fuzhou's economic aggregate will exceed Quanzhou.
In Jiangsu, for a long time in the past, the total GDP of Nanjing was not only inferior to Suzhou, but also inferior to Wuxi. It was jokingly called "Su Xiaosan", but in 2014 Nanjing surpassed Wuxi and rose to the second place in Jiangsu. In recent years, the gap with Suzhou It is also shrinking.
From the perspective of the second city in the economic aggregate of 27 provinces, Guangzhou, Nanjing, and Ningbo have exceeded the trillion yuan mark, and Jinan and Fuzhou are in the 900 billion yuan echelon.
In addition, it is worth noting that although Guangzhou, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Jinan, Shenyang, Shijiazhuang and Hohhot fell to the first place in the province, they all ranked second in the province.
Currently, no provincial capital has slipped out of the top two places in the province.
From the perspective of cities with the third largest economic output in each province, there are still two cities in Foshan and Wuxi that have exceeded the trillion yuan mark.
In other words, Guangdong and Jiangsu, the two provinces with the largest economic aggregates, the top three cities have all entered the ranks of the GDP trillion club.
It is worth noting that Xiamen, Fujian’s only sub-provincial city and a city under separate planning, ranks third in the province’s total economic output.
At present, there are different calculation dimensions for the primacy degree of a city. Generally speaking, the ratio of the second largest city to the first largest city in a region can be regarded as the “primary degree” of the first largest city, and this indicator can also reflect The "strength" of the largest economic city in the region.
From the perspective of the ratio of the second-ranked city to the first-ranked city in the total economic output of each province, there are 2 provinces exceeding 90%, namely Fujian and Liaoning; 4 provinces are between 80% and 90%, respectively Guangdong, Guizhou, Hebei, and Shandong; in addition, the ratio of Zhejiang, Inner Mongolia and Jiangsu also exceeds 70%.
It can be said that the gap between the first and second cities in these provinces is relatively small.
From a regional point of view, the seven non-provincial capitals counter-attacked the provinces that have become the largest economic cities, all of which are among them.
It can be seen that in these provinces, although the provincial capital cities are surpassed by other cities in the province, the overall gap is not large, and the provincial capital cities may still accelerate to catch up in the future.
There are 16 provinces where the ratio is less than 50%. That is to say, the economic aggregate of the second largest city is less than half of the first largest city. These provinces are mainly from the central and western regions, and all of them are the provinces with the leading economic capital.
Eight provinces have this ratio below 40%, namely Sichuan, Jilin, Gansu, Hubei, Ningxia, Hunan, Anhui, and Xinjiang.
Among them, Mianyang, the second largest city in Sichuan, is only 16.8% of Chengdu, Jilin City, the second largest city in Jilin Province, is only 24% of the provincial capital Changchun, and Xiangyang, the second largest city in Hubei, is less than 30% of the provincial capital Wuhan.
It can be seen that in these provinces, the primacy of provincial capital cities is very prominent.
Niu Fengrui said that Chengdu and Wuhan are sub-provincial cities and regional central cities in the central and western regions. There are a lot of college resources and the agglomeration effect formed by various policies is particularly prominent.
In the western region, many provinces have relatively poor economic development conditions, such as lack of plains, poor land, and relatively backward transportation infrastructure. Therefore, provincial capital cities are the main platforms for economic development.
In the Northeast, due to the relatively simple industrial structure of most ordinary prefecture-level cities, downward pressure has been greater in recent years, and the gap with provincial capital cities will also be greater.
Author: Lin Xiaozhao