The year 2021 is a year of milestone significance in the history of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core, all regions and departments took Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as the guideline, fully implemented the spirits of the 19th CPC National Congress and the Plenary Sessions of the 19th CPC Central Committee and fostered the great founding spirit of the CPC. All regions and departments followed the decisions and arrangements made by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, committed to the general working guideline of making progress while maintaining stability, fully and faithfully implemented the new development philosophy on all fronts, accelerated fostering a new development pattern, comprehensively deepened the reform and opening up, insisted on innovation-driven development, and promoted the high-quality development. We celebrated the centenary of the founding of the CPC, fulfilled the First Centenary Goal, and embarked on the new journey to achieve the Second Centenary Goal. While responding with composure to changes and the pandemic both unseen in a century, we have made new advances in fostering a new development pattern and pursuing high-quality development, and got off to a good start in implementing the 14th Five-Year Plan. China has maintained the leading position in the economic growth and the epidemic prevention and control in the world. National strategic capacity in science and technology accelerated its growth, industrial chain resilience was improved, reform and opening-up was advanced in depth, people's livelihood was strongly and effectively safeguarded, and ecological conservation was carried forward. These are the results of the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core and the results of concerted efforts and hard work by the Party and the Chinese people of all ethnic groups.
I. General Outlook
According to preliminary estimation, the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2021 was 114,367.0 billion yuan, up by 8.1 percent over the previous year with the average two-year growth of 5.1 percent. Of this total, the value added of the primary industry was 8,308.6 billion yuan, up by 7.1 percent over the previous year, that of the secondary was 45,090.4 billion yuan, up by 8.2 percent, and that of the tertiary was 60,968.0 billion yuan, up by 8.2 percent. The value added of the primary industry accounted for 7.3 percent of the GDP; that of the secondary accounted for 39.4 percent; and that of the tertiary accounted for 53.3 percent. The contribution of the final consumption expenditure to GDP growth rate was up by 5.3 percentage points, that of the gross capital formation to GDP growth rate up by 1.1 percentage points and that of the net exports of goods and services to GDP growth rate up by 1.7 percentage points. The per capita GDP was 80,976 yuan, up by 8.0 percent over the previous year, the gross national income was 113,351.8 billion yuan, up by 7.9 percent, the overall labor productivity was 146,380 yuan per person, up by 8.7 percent.
Figure 1: Gross Domestic Product and Growth Rates 2017- 2021
Figure 2: Shares of the Three Industries' Value Added of GDP 2017-2021
Figure 3: The Overall Labor Productivity 2017-2021
By the end of 2021, the total number of national population reached 1,412.60 million, an increase of 0.48 million over that at the end of 2020. Of this total, urban permanent residents numbered 914.25 million. There were 10.62 million births with a crude birth rate of 7.52 per thousand; and there were 10.14 million deaths with a crude death rate of 7.18 per thousand. The natural growth rate was 0.34 per thousand. The number of population who live in places other than their household registration areas reached 504 million, of which 385 million were floating population.
Table 1: Population and Its Composition by the End of 2021
At the end of 2021, the number of employed people in China was 746.52 million, and that in urban areas was 467.73 million, accounting for 62.7 percent for the total employed people, 1.1 percentage points higher than that at the end of the previous year. The newly increased employed people in urban areas numbered 12.69 million, 0.83 million more than that in the previous year. The surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.1 percent, and the registered urban unemployment rate was 3.96 percent. The total number of migrant workers was 292.51 million, up by 2.4 percent over that of 2020. Specifically, the number of migrant workers who left their hometowns and worked in other places was 171.72 million, up by 1.3 percent, and those who worked in their own localities reached 120.79 million, up by 4.1 percent.
Figure 4：Newly Increased Employed People in Urban Areas 2017-2021
The consumer prices in 2021 went up by 0.9 percent over the previous year. The producer prices for industrial products went up by 8.1 percent and the purchasing prices for industrial producers up by 11.0 percent. The producer prices for farm products dropped by 2.2 percent. In December 2021, out of the 70 large and medium-sized cities, 53 cities experienced a year-on-year rise in sales prices of new commercial residential buildings and 17 cities experienced a decline; 43 cities experienced a year-on-year rise in sales prices of second-hand housing, one city maintained the same, and 26 cities experienced a decline.
Figure 5：Monthly Changes of Consumer Prices in 2021
Table 2: Changes of Consumer Prices in 2021
At the end of 2021, China's foreign exchange reserves reached 3,250.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 33.6 billion US dollars compared with that at the end of 2020. The average exchange rate of the year was 6.4515 RMB to 1 USD dollar, appreciated by 6.9 percent over that of 2020.
Figure 6：Year-end China's Foreign Exchange Reserves 2017-2021
New industries, new forms and models of business gathered speed to grow. Among the industries above the designated size, the value added of the high technology manufacturing industry increased by 18.2 percent over the previous year, accounting for 15.1 percent of that of all industrial enterprises above the designated size. The value added for the manufacture of equipment was up by 12.9 percent, accounting for 32.4 percent of that of all industrial enterprises above the designated size. Among the service enterprises above the designated size, the business revenue of the strategic emerging service industries went up by 16.0 percent compared with the previous year. In 2021, the investment in high technology industries increased by 17.1 percent over the previous year, the output of new energy vehicles reached 3.677 million, up by 152.5 percent compared with the previous year, and that of integrated circuits was 359.43 billion, up by 37.5 percent. In 2021, the online retail sales reached 13,088.4 billion yuan, up by 14.1 percent over the previous year on comparable basis, the number of newly registered market entities was 28.87 million, with 25 thousand market entities newly registered per day on average. By the end of 2021, the market entities totaled 0.15 billion.
Solid progress was made in the coordinated development across urban and rural areas and different regions. By the end of 2021, the urbanization rate of permanent residents reached 64.72 percent, 0.83 percentage points higher than the end of 2020. The gross domestic product in the eastern areas was 59,220.2 billion yuan, an increase of 8.1 percent over the previous year; the central areas, 25,013.2 billion yuan, up by 8.7 percent; the western areas, 23,971.0 billion yuan, up by 7.4 percent; and the northeastern areas, 5,569.9 billion yuan, up by 6.1 percent. In 2021, the gross domestic product in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region reached 9,635.6 billion yuan, up by 7.3 percent over the previous year; that in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, 53,022.8 billion yuan, up by 8.7 percent; and that in the Yangtze River Delta, 27,605.4 billion yuan, up by 8.4 percent. Major regional strategies such as the construction of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the ecological protection of the Yellow River Basin, and the high-quality development were further implemented.
Figure 7：Year-end Urbanization Rates of Permanent Residents 2017-2021
New achievement was made in ecological environmental protection. The national energy consumption per 10,000 yuan worth of GDP in 2021 dropped by 2.7 percent over the previous year. Of the monitored 339 cities at prefecture level and above, 64.3 percent reached the air quality standard and 35.7 percent failed. The annual average concentration of particulate matter （PM2.5） was 30 micrograms per cubic meter, down by 9.1 percent over the previous year. Of the 3,641 sections under the national monitoring program for surface water, 84.9 percent were fairly clean water quality （Grade I to III）， 11.8 percent were Grade IV, 2.2 percent were Grade V and 1.2 percent was worse than Grade V national standard.
Edited by Wang Miao with reference to
<http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2022-02/28/content_5676015.htm> and <http://www.stats.gov.cn/english/PressRelease/202202/t20220227_1827963.html>
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