China's tiered city system explained (2016)
China city tiers

    
    
    
        
            
        
        
    
    
        
        
        Urban legend:China’s tiered city system explained
        
            Tier systems are widely used to classify Chinese cities. The tiers are used by analysts to study consumer behaviour, income level, politics, and local trends to help tune strategies to local conditions
        
        
    
    
        
            What’s a city tier and how is it assigned?
            
                China has 613 cities which are usually divided into four tiers. Different organisations define a tier using a number of factors but they always fall within the following three main categories
            
                
        
            
                GDP
                Each city is first classified by Gross Domestic Product. China’s cities range from US$350 trillion to minor cities with GDP under US$20 billion
            
            All first tier cities have a GDP over $US300 billion
            The second tier includes cities with GDP between US$68 billion and US$299 billion
            Third tier cities have a GDP between US$18 billion and US$67 billion
            Most fourth tier cities have a GDP below US$17 billion
        
        
            
                Politics
                The second classification is the political administration of a city. China has four levels as well as two special regions, Hong Kong and Macau
            
            The cities in here are directly controlled by central goverment
            The second tier consists of provincial capital cities and sub-provincial capital cities
            The third category is made up of prefecture capital cities
            The rest are county level cities
        
        
            
                Population
                The core city and urban areas surrounding the main city are taken into account to define metropolitan areas
            
            Cities with more than 15 million people
            The second tier includes cities of three to 15 million people
            The third category is for cities with 150,000 to 3 million people
            Cities populated by less than 150,000 people
        
        
            
            
                Average
                Many cities rank differently in each area so the average is used to define their actual tier. A city ranking 1-2-1 will be in the first tier
            
            Average tier1 cities
            Average tier2 cities
            Average tier3 cities
            Average tier4 cities
        
    
    
        
            China’s county portrait
            
               Here we look at China's county administration divisions. The colours represent the tier level of each county. The darker hue allotted, the higher a counties qualification. Use the buttons below to compare a counties GDP, population size or political clout and see how the tiers vary
            
        
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                COLOUR KEY
                
                    T1 (Highest)
                    T2
                    T3
                    T4 (lowest)
                
                
            
                Tier classification
                
                    Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and, Chongqing are directly controlled by China's Administration Centre. Along with Guangzhou they make up the five cities which qualify across all three categories as tier one 
                
            
            
        
    
    
        
            All the cities in China
            
                China classifies it's cities according to GDP, administrative level and population. The graphic below is a visual analysis of each of the 613 cities of China. Click a city for additional information
            
        
        
            
                About this graphic
                
                    The position of the city is related to the average tier classification, that means a city 1-1-1 is top left, while a city classified as 4-4-4 will be at the bottom right. They are then sorted by population in descending order
                
            
            
                
                    GDP
                    Politics
                    Population
                    Tier classification, top as best (1), bottom for last (4)
                
                
            
            
                
                    The size of each semi-circle is relative to the urban population in clusters
                
                
            
        
    
    
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            Scroll a side your screen to continue down, or scroll in the screen middle to view more cities.
        
        
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

