Population Trends: Wealth Flashcards
Wealth distribution in China
- The poor are largely concentrated in wester China, while wealthier regions = east coast since Chinese authorities were directing investments towards the coastal cities, at the expense of the development of inland regions
Wealth distribution in China statistics
- 70% of China’s wealth is owned by the richest 10% of the population
Wealth distribution in China (rural vs urban) statistic
- Shanghai has highest disposable income per capita (53,500 yuan)
- Xinjiang is the poorest province with an income of 23,800 yuan (less than half of Shanghai)
Problems with wealth distribution in poor areas (affordability)
E.g the cost of a Shenzhen apartment is around 43x the average annual salary of the region
Shanghai’s GDP
Shanghai accounts for 3.63% of China’s overall GDP. Considering that its land area is 0.1% of the country as a whole, this is an impressive figure.
Reasons why Shanghai is the wealthiest
- Shanghai’s location
- Shanghai is home to some of China’s top universities (Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University.) = better education and access to better jobs.
- Shanghai has automobile manufacturing industry
Shanghai’s location
- Trading: the city allows easy access by ship to China’s neighbouring countries, and sits at the edge of the massive Yangtze River, which leads inland to the former capital of Nanjing and the heart of China itself
- China’s ‘open door’ policy in the 1980s allowed for FDI in China, with much of the money being directed towards Shanghai.
Shanghai’s industry
- Shanghai is also home to a thriving automobile manufacturing industry, with the city accounting for about 10% of the country’s entire automobile manufacturing output in 2021.
- This creates more jobs and increases the city’s income.
Why are some areas in China so poor?
Quality of education
High unemployment
Food costs
Quality of education in poor area
- Many rural inhabitants lack access to schools and higher education, and therefore cannot reach the available higher-paying jobs and lift themselves out of poverty
- Instead, they often work in lower-paying roles or self-employed agricultural jobs.
High unemployment in rural China
- In 2020, 222 mil/ 510 million rural inhabitants were unemployed.
- One possible reason for this could be that most of China’s industrial clusters/factories are located in coastal areas like the Dongbei area and the Yangtze River Delta region
- So less jobs available for people in western regions like Xinjiang and Tibet, and places in these areas receive far less investment from foreign companies and the government.
Food costs in poor areas
- Food costs more in rural areas than in urban ones, despite the fact that cities have higher gross incomes
- At least 50 counties in Tibet, Yunnan and Sichuan are unbanked, which means they even lack access to banks and financial services.
Poverty line statistic
- 1990: more than 750 million people (living below the international poverty line)
- 2016: 7.2 million people.
Why has poverty reduced?
- The abandonment of Mao’s disastrous policies (e.g the Great Leap Forward) in favour of versions of capitalism helped China’s development and increased its income
- The govt’s ‘open-door’ policy in the 1980s increased FDI = increased prosperity.
Why has the urban-rural wealth disparity increased despite poverty decreasing?
However, the majority of the money was funnelled into Eastern provinces and cities, with little left for western regions and rural areas. So while many were lifted out of poverty, the urban-rural wealth disparity increased significantly
