This article needs to be updated.(May 2023) |
China's current mainly market economy features a high degree of income inequality. According to the Asian Development Bank Institute, “before China implemented reform and opening-up policies in 1978, its income distribution pattern was characterized as egalitarian in all aspects.”[1]
A study published in the PNAS estimated that China's Gini coefficient increased from 0.30 to 0.55 between 1980 and 2002.[2] At this time, the Gini coefficient for rural – urban inequality was only 0.16. As of 2019[update], the official Gini coefficient in China was 0.465; inequality was at its highest in the 2000s, with numerous sources reporting a significant decline in the 2010s.[3]