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In Which Provinces are Chinese Companies Concentrated?

by Matt Slater May 31, 2016

As you’d expect for the world’s most populous nation, there are a huge number of Chinese companies. But where in China are they located? Are there certain provinces with high concentrations of companies?

In this article we find out which provinces have the highest and lowest number of companies, and see how this compares against their population figures.

By analyzing the number of companies per 1000 population we have identified the provinces with the highest concentration of Chinese companies.

Counting Chinese Companies

We have previously identified the total number of companies in China but for this article collecting the necessary data for all of the provinces proved to be quite a challenge.

No central database of statistics could be found so we have based our figures mainly on reports emanating from each of the various provincial AIC branches. Data for Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan was more straightforward to identify and has been included.

A data table is provided at the end of this article including a description of the information source for the number of companies in each province.

Concentration of Chinese Companies Per Province

Our calculations identified that the province with the highest concentration of Chinese companies is Hong Kong, with a huge 183 registered companies per 1000 people.

There are many reasons why Hong Kong has a very high number of company registrations, for example because it is rated very highly internationally for ease of doing business.

After that, we expected to see the major 1st Tier China municipalities of Shanghai and Beijing stand our prominently. Although both have a high concentration of companies, the ratios were not as high as we had expected – Zhejiang province actually has a higher number of companies per population than Shanghai!

It is not surprising to see that China’s provinces with the strongest economies all have a high concentration of companies – Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong all rank near the top.

Meanwhile, there are low concentrations of companies in China’s less developed areas inland provinces, most notably in Henan, Hunan, Gansu and Guangxi.

Table of the Concentration of Chinese Companies per Province

This chart identifies the number of companies per 1000 people in each province of China, in order of highest concentration to least.

Province	Companies /1000 Pop.	Province	Companies /1000 Pop.	Province	Companies /1000 Pop.
Hong Kong	183	Jilin	64	Shanxi	48
Macao	98	Liaoning	62	Jiangxi	47
Beijing	95	Guizhou	56	Hebei	47
Zhejiang	87	Tianjin	55	Ningxia	47
Shanghai	83	Shaanxi	53	Xinjiang	47
Jiangsu	78	Qinghai	53	Heilongjiang	45
Guangdong	76	Yunnan	52	Guangxi	45
Hubei	72	Sichuan	51	Gansu	43
Hainan	70	Tibet	51	Hunan	39
Chongqing	67	Fujian	48	Henan	38
Inner Mongolia	67	Anhui	48	Taiwan	28
Shandong	65

Concentration of Chinese Companies Mapped

Plotting these results on a map shows that the regions with the highest concentration of Chinese companies are the developed coastal provinces.

The northern provinces of Shandong, Liaoning, Jilin and Inner Mongolia also have fairly high concentrations, at least relative to the less developed inland provinces.

Note: zooming in on the map reveals the names of each province.

Chinese Companies per Province Data Table

A full table of the data collected for this article is displayed below.

Province	Companies (per 1,000 people)	Population	No. of Companies	Information Source
Anhui	47.80	59500510	2844200	News report from MOFCOM, Apr 2016
Beijing	94.84	19612368	1860000	News report from Beijing government press conference, Feb 2016
Chongqing	67.18	28846170	1937900	Chongqing AIC statistics, Jan 2016
Fujian	47.66	36894216	1758310	Fujian AIC statistics, July 2014
Gansu	43.48	25575254	1112000	News report from Gansu Daily Newspaper, Jan 2015
Guangdong	76.49	104303132	7977800	Guangdong AIC statistics, Apr 2016
Guangxi	45.28	46026629	2084000	News report from Guangxi Daily Newspaper, Jan 2016
Guizhou	56.26	34746468	1955000	News report from Guizhou AIC, Apr 2016
Hainan	69.88	8671518	606005	Hainan AIC statistics, Feb 2015
Hebei	46.90	71854202	3370100	News report from Hebei AIC, Apr 2016
Heilongjiang	44.61	38312224	1709000	News report from Heilongjiang AIC, July 2014
Henan	38.01	94023567	3573600	News report from Henan AIC, Jan 2016
Hong Kong	183.16	7061200	1293295	Hong Kong Company Registry statistics, Mar 2016
Hubei	72.12	57237740	4127800	News report from Hubei AIC, Jan 2016
Hunan	39.34	65683722	2583700	News report from Hunan Daily Newspaper, Jan 2016
Inner Mongolia	67.37	24706321	1664400	News report from Inner Mongolia government, Jan 2016
Jiangsu	77.95	78659903	6131600	Jiangsu AIC statistics, Apr 2016
Jiangxi	46.67	44567475	2080100	News report from Jiangxi government press conference, Jun 2015
Jilin	63.92	27462297	1755400	Jilin AIC statistics, Apr 2016
Liaoning	62.45	43746323	2732000	News report from Liaoning AIC, May 2016
Macau	97.77	552300	54000	Macau govrnment statistics, May 2016
Ningxia	46.95	6176900	290000	News report from Ningxia News, Sep 2013
Qinghai	53.03	5626722	298400	Qinghai AIC statistics, Jan 2016
Shaanxi	52.51	37327378	1960200	News report from Shanxi government press conference, Mar 2016
Shandong	64.53	95793065	6182000	News report from Shandong government press conference, Mar 2016
Shanghai	83.19	23019148	1914900	Shanghai AIC statistics, Feb 2016
Shanxi	48.39	35712111	1727997	Shanxi AIC statistics, Apr 2016
Sichuan	50.73	80418200	4079400	Sichuan AIC statistics, Apr 2016
Taiwan	28.11	23499404	660643	Taiwan's Department of Commerce, Mar 2016
Tianjin	54.55	12938224	705800	Tianjin AIC statistics, Jan 2016
Tibet	51.36	3002166	154200	News report from Tibet government press conference, Jan 2016
Xinjiang	47.31	21813334	1032000	News report from Xinjiang AIC, Jul 2015
Yunnan	52.39	45966239	2408300	News report from Yunnan AIC, Apr 2016
Zhejiang	86.54	54426891	4710000	News report from Zhejiang AIC, Jan 2016

N.b. Population data is taken from China’s 2010 National Census.

Now we we know which provinces have a high concentration of companies, but do you want to know which provinces foreign companies do business in?

Matt Slater

Author

Hi there, I'm Matt, the founder of China Checkup. Originally from the UK, I am now based in Brisbane, Australia.

Frustrated by the scarcity of concise, high-quality and timely information about Chinese companies, I setup China Checkup whilst living in Shanghai in 2013.

My team are proud that China Checkup's company verification reports have now helped thousands of clients from all corners of the world to do business in China more safely.

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