China Focus: China's 5th national economic census highlights new development vitality

BEIJING, Dec. 26 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday published the results of its fifth national economic census, which showed that the country's economy had a solid foundation, strong resilience and enormous potential over the past five years.

China's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023 reached nearly 130 trillion yuan (about 18.08 trillion U.S. dollars). As the world's second-largest economy, the country's average contribution to global economic growth has remained around 30 percent for the past five years, making it the largest driving force behind world economic growth.

The census results also showed that China's economic structure continued to improve. The tertiary industry became more important, with its added value accounting for 56.3 percent of GDP in 2023, an increase of more than 2 percentage points over 2018.

China has witnessed a significant increase in the number of entities and persons employed in secondary and tertiary industries, Kang Yi, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said at a press conference on the census.

China had 33.27 million legal units engaged in secondary and tertiary industries at the end of 2023, up 52.7 percent from the end of 2018.

The secondary and tertiary industries employed over 428.98 million people at the end of 2023, up 11.9 percent compared with the end of 2018.

The number of self-employed units was nearly 88 million with 179.56 million persons employed, according to the results.

In particular, the fifth national economic census has included the digital economy for the first time.

China had 2.92 million corporate enterprises engaged in the core industries of the digital economy, with 36.16 million persons employed as of the end of 2023.

The total yearly business revenue for the core industries of the digital economy reached 48.45 trillion yuan.

The capacity for technological innovation, as well as labor productivity, has continued to improve, said Kang, adding that the industrial structure has been optimized, and the digital economy has experienced robust growth.

In 2023, the proportion of hi-tech manufacturing corporate enterprises in enterprises above the designated size (each with an annual main business turnover of at least 20 million yuan) went up 2 percentage points compared with 2018, Kang said.

He also noted that the number of enterprises above the designated size engaged in strategic emerging industry activities nationwide reached 158,000, accounting for one-fifth of the total.

Besides, China's research and development (R&D) investment also marked notable growth, with R&D expenditure in 2023 jumping by 61.9 percent compared with 2018.

The economic census, one of China's key national surveys, provides a comprehensive overview of the country's secondary and tertiary industries, offering valuable insights into its social and economic development.

China carried out four national economic censuses in 2004, 2008, 2013 and 2018, respectively, and formally started its fifth national economic census in 2023.

To ensure the authenticity and reliability of the census data, Kang said a plan for the economic census had been formulated scientifically, and the quality control of the data had been strengthened throughout the entire process.

The post-enumeration check, sampling 21,000 units, 1,099 enumeration areas, and 249 county-level regions from 31 provincial-level regions, showed that the combined error rate was 0.47 percent, which met the standard for data quality. ■