Published : 2025-01-18

On January 18, 2013, China released its Gini coefficient for the first time.

The National Bureau of Statistics held a press conference on the national economic performance of 2012 that morning, and Director Ma Jiantang (馬建堂) announced China's Gini coefficient from 2003 to 2012 for the first time in response to a reporter's question.

The data showed that except for a decline in 2004, China's Gini coefficient had been rising since 2003, reaching a peak of 0.4910 in 2008, and then began to decline annually. The Gini coefficient for 2012 was 0.474.

Over the 10 years, China's Gini coefficient remained above 0.4, and Ma Jiantang admitted that it "reflects a relatively large income gap," highlighting the urgency to accelerate income distribution reforms and narrow the income gap, "because a Gini coefficient between 0.47 and 0.49 is not low."

According to the latest release from the National Bureau of Statistics, the Gini coefficient for China's "per capita disposable income of residents" in 2022 was 0.467.

The Gini coefficient was proposed by the Italian scholar Corrado Gini in 1922, with values ranging from 0 to 1. The larger the value, the greater the income disparity.

Generally, 0.4 is considered the warning line. If the value is 0.6, it indicates a highly unequal society.