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China’s society is changing beyond all recognition. At the heart of the most sweeping social and economic transformation the world has seen is the rise of a powerful new – largely urban – middle class. China’s urban middle-class population alone, if considered as a country, is larger than the entire U.S. total population today. The pace of change has been extraordinary. As recently as 2000, only 4 percent of urban households in China were middle class; by 2012, that share had soared to over two-thirds. And by 2022, China’s middle class should number 630 million – that is, three-quarters of urban Chinese households and 45 percent of the entire population. The rise of the middle class is essentially an urban phenomenon. Average per capita urban income in China is roughly triple that in the countryside – and there are set to be 170 million new urbanites between now and 2022.
By 2022, we expect China’s middle class to be consuming goods and services valued at $3.4 trillion – 24 percent of GDP. This has enormous significance for U.S. businesses. It is imperative that companies get to know the new Chinese middle-class consumer in intimate detail.