The Rise of China's Global Middle Class in International Perspective

Terry Sicular (), Xiuna Yang () and Björn Anders Gustafsson ()
Additional contact information
Xiuna Yang: China Development Research Foundation
Björn Anders Gustafsson: Göteborg University

No 14531, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Defining the 'global middle class' as being neither poor nor rich in the developed world, we estimate the size of the global middle class in China and 33 other countries and analyze China's expanding middle class in international perspective. China's global middle class has grown rapidly and has been catching up with that in developed countries. By 2018 China's global middle class constituted 25 percent of China's population; in absolute size it was nearly double the size of the global middle class in the US and similar in size to that in Europe. Cross-country analysis of the relationship between the middle-class population share versus GDP per capita reveals an inverted-U pattern. China is not an outlier from the cross-country pattern, but the speed with which its middle-class has expanded is unusual. The only other countries with similarly large, rapid expansions of the middle class are transition economies.

Keywords: China; middle class; income distribution; transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 O53 P3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 31 pages
Date: 2021-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna and nep-ltv
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Published - published in: China & World Economy, 2022, 30 (1), 5 - 27

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Working Paper: The Rise of China’s Global Middle Class in International Perspective (2021)
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