An Index System for Regional Development in the PRC

The Regional Development Index for China (RDIC) consists of 10 field indices (and one reference index) to measure regional development in different fields. They are:

1) Level of economic development;
2) Productivity and R&D;
3) Human development;
4) Education;
5) Social equity;
6) Public services;
7) Social security;
8) Infrastructure;
9) Environment protection;
10) Institutional development; and
11) Natural resources and geographic location (reference index)

Each of the ten field indices directly presents a certain field of development, and together they constitute the overall index. Each field index consists of a few sub-indices, which are based on one or more basic indicators. In total, 70 basic indicators are used. The eleventh field index presents the natural endowments of a province, which act as conditions for development, not as achievements of development. Therefore it is used as a reference but not a component of the overall index.

In the following, the structure of the index is specified. Indicators with “(MDG)” are those used by UN (2003) as the MDG indicators, though there may be slight differences in data definitions. Indicators in italic are currently unavailable at the provincial level.

1. Economic Development
  1.1 GDP per capita (yuan/person)
  1.2 Income per capita
    1.21 Urban income per capita (yuan/person)
    1.22 Rural income per capita (yuan/person)

  1.3 Urbanization and industrialization
    1.31 Urbanization ratio (% of urban residents in population)
    1.32 Non-agricultural employment ratio (% of non-agricultural employment in total employment)

2. Productivity and R&D
  2.1 Productivity
    2.11 Productivity of capital (ratio of value-added to total assets in industry)
    2.12 Capital contribution (ratio of the sum of profit, taxes and interests paid to total assets in industry)
    2.13 Labor productivity (value-added /total employment)

  2.2 R&D
    2.21 Number of technological personnel as a proportion to population (%)
    2.22 R&D expenditure of the government (% of GDP)
    2.23 Patent applied (case/per 10000 technical personnel)
    2.24 Transaction value in technical market (% of GDP)

3. Human Development
  3.1 Population development
   3.11 Life expectation: male & female
   3.12 Natural population growth rate (non-negative lower rates are preferable)
   3.13 Aging ratio of the population
   3.14 Sex ratio of the population (│male/female-1│×100%, lower ratio is preferred)
   Under five mortality rate (MDG)
   Infant mortality rate (MDG)

 3.2 Demographic mobility (immigrants to cities/population)
 3.3 Human safety
   3.31 Death rate by traffic accident (per 10,000 persons of population)
   3.32 Fire accident (per 10,000 persons of population)

4. Education
 4.1 Literate rate of the population ≥ 6 (MDG)
 4.2 Average year of schooling of the population ≥ 6
 4.3 Students in tertiary & vocational secondary education (% of population)

5. Social Equity
 5.1 Income disparity
   5.11 Urban Gini coefficients (MDG)
   5.12 Rural Gini coefficients (MDG)
   5.13 Urban-rural income gap (MDG)
   Population below national poverty line (%)

 5.2 Employment opportunity
   5.21 Unemployment rate (MDG)
   Layoff worker rate

 5.3 Sex equality
   5.31 School girl to boy ratio – primary
   5.32 School girl to boy ratio – junior high
   5.33 School girl to boy ratio – senior high
   5.34 School girl to boy ratio – university

6. Public Services
 6.1 School completion
   6.11 Primary school completion ratio (graduation/6 year lag enrolment, 2-year moving average) (MDG)
   6.12 Junior high enrolment ratio
   6.13 Junior high school completion ratio (graduation/3 year lag enrolment, 2-year moving average)
   6.14 Children in-school ratio (7-16 years old)
 6.2 Resources for education
   6.21 Fiscal expenses in education (% of GDP)
   6.22 Teachers as a ratio of population
 6.3 Resources for public health
   6.31 Fiscal expenses in public health
   6.32 Medical doctors as a ratio of population

7. Social Security
 7.1 Coverage of urban basic pension insurance
 7.2 Coverage of urban employment insurance
 7.3 Coverage of urban basic medical insurance
 Coverage of rural cooperative medical system
 Coverage of rural retirement insurance

8. Infrastructure
 8.1 Highway
   8.11 Standard highway density (km/kkm2)
   8.12 Standard highway-population ratio (km/10k population)

 8.2 Railway
   8.21 Standard railway density (km/kkm2)
   8.22 Standard railway population ratio (km/10k population)

 8.3 Port
   8.31 Port density (quay length/area, m/100km2)
   8.32 Port population ratio (quay length/population, m/10k population)

 8.4 Local transport (% of villages connected by highways)
 8.5 Telecommunication
   8.51 Mobile phone coverage (subscriber/population, %) (MDG)
   8.52 Telephone coverage (subscriber/population, %) (MDG)

 8.6 Computer hold (personal computers/population, %) (MDG)
 Airports (/population, /land area)
 Urban public vehicle (/urban population)
 Urban road (length/per capita)
 Tap water users (% of urban population) (MDG)
 Percentage villages have electricity supply

9. Environment Protection
 9.1 Ecological environment
   9.11 Area covered by forests (%) (MDG)
   9.12 Area protected for biologic diversification (%) (MDG)

 9.2 Energy consumption ratio (to GDP, tons of standard coal/10,000 yuan) (MDG)
 9.3 Air pollution
   9.31 Industrial waste gas emission per capita (standard m3/person of population) MDG)
   9.32 Urban air quality (% of days meeting air quality grade II in provincial capital)

 9.4 Treatment of waste water and solid waste
   9.41 Industrial waste water treated (%)
   9.42 Industrial solid waste treated (%)
   9.43 Living solid waste treated (%)

10. Institutional Development
 10.1 Marketization (marketization index)
 10.2 Legal environment
 10.3 Government
   10.31 Government intervention on enterprise (Entrepreneurs’ time proportion dealing with government)
   10.32 Farmers’ financial burden (% of income)
   10.33 Enterprises’ non-tax burden (% of total sales)
   10.34 Government efficiency (ratio of government/party employment to population)

11. Natural Resources and Geographic Location (reference)
 11.1 Water resources (surface and ground water resource per capita, 100 m2/person)
 11.2 Agricultural land (cultivated land per capita, hectare/person)
 11.3 Forest (forest per capita, hectare/person)
 11.4 Mineral energy resource reserves (oil, coal, natural gas) per capita (ton/person)
 11.5 Geographic location (railway distance from provincial capital city to a main coastal port (km)
 Grass land per capita

Overall, the index system consists of one overall index, ten field indices and two reference indices, constituted from 70 basic indicators.

The author should also point out that the current structure of the index is not complete, due to data shortages in some fields, although a large number of statistic indicators have been included. For example, some productivity variables are available only for the industrial sector. When considering human safety, crime statistics are important, but detailed data for provinces are not available. For natural resources, the current field index only includes water, land forest, and mineral energy resources. Other mineral resources are also important, but data are incomplete. Therefore the index system will require further improvement in the future.

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