Abstract
China is now in the midst of a process of economic restructuring in which economic growth mainly relies on domestic consumption. There are two major driving forces behind this process, one is mass consumption and the other is urbanization and industrialization. China has already entered a phase of mass consumption, which now makes China capable of promoting economic growth through domestic consumption, with urbanization also playing a key role (Li 2010a). As for the major developed countries such as the U.S., the U.K. and Japan, while their development processes are different, they all have high urbanization rates and a large and mature middle class. The 2012 Analysis and Forecast of China’s Social Condition indicates that in 2011 China’s urban population surpassed the rural population for the first time in history, with urbanization rate exceeding 50%.
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Notes
- 1.
In this survey, we interviewed 7063 people from 7100 households (employed population), randomly drawing the samples from 28 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities).
- 2.
In CSS2011, the samples amount to a total of 7036 of which 4324 are urban samples. The effective samples amount to 2957, disposing of missing samples which was brought about by household per capita income, education received and occupation, and the elimination of people aged over 60, students at school or incapacitated persons during the survey.
- 3.
From people.com.cn: http://gs.people.com.cn/BIG5/183283/12294768.html.
- 4.
In CSS2008, the total samples are 7139 with 3862 urban samples which accounted total samples for 54%. The effective samples are 3065, getting rid of missing samples that brought about by household income per capita, education to receive and occupation, and elimination of the people aged 60 years and older, the students in the schools or incapacitated persons during the survey.
- 5.
We took the overall situation of the urban areas into consideration when defining the middle class in this article, but there is a certain disparity in income between first-tier cities and other cities, so the percentage may not be accurate; the percentage used in this article is to stress on the difference the level of income for different classes in the first-tier cities, rather than the actual estimated proportion for some classes in different types of cities.
- 6.
The CSS series sampled households using multi-level and random sampling methods. Then a family member is sampled as the interviewee by KISH sampling randomly. Accordingly, if the interviewee is in the middle class, at least one member in the family must be middle class. Hence, the probability of this family belonging to a higher social class is higher than that when the randomly-sampled interviewee comes from a non-middle class household. The analysis also indicates that the occupational status and level of education of the spouse of the interviewee coming from a non-middle class household is lower than that from a middle-class one. Therefore, the possibility of a non-middle class interviewee having middle-class family members is low. Thus, when analyzing consumption patterns in this research, we take the household of middle-class interviewees as approximately that of a middleclass household, the household of marginal-middle-class interviewees approximately as that of a borderline middle class household, and the household of those below the borderline middle class interviewees as approximately that of those below the borderline middle class household.
- 7.
Including self-build houses, commercial residential buildings, government-subsidized housing, public rental housing, houses with limited property rights, and rural private housing, among others.
- 8.
From: http://news.zhoushan.soufun.com/2011-09-16/5896-39.htm. Depositor Survey Report for the 3rd Quarter of 2011 is a questionnaire survey report carried out by the People’s Bank of China on 20,000 urban bank depositors in 50 cities across the country.
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Zhu, D. (2019). Urbanization and the Growth of the Middle Class. In: Li, P. (eds) Urbanization and Its Impact in Contemporary China. Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2342-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2342-3_7
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