YIVA methodology · 2025
YIVA China City Entry Index
Most China city rankings sort by GDP, which tells you which municipality has the biggest economy — not whether a brand can reach the people inside it, or whether they can afford the product. This index scores the entry question instead: can you reach them, can they pay, is the market big enough, and does policy let you operate. Four pillars, 51 cities.
5 cities currently sit in the priority band. See the leaderboards →
Four pillars
Digital access
30%Can you reach these consumers online, on the platforms that matter for discovery and purchase?
- Xiaohongshu(30%)
- % of internet users
- WeChat(25%)
- % of internet users
- Douyin(25%)
- % of internet users
- Internet(20%)
- users ÷ population
Consumer depth
30%How much spending power sits behind each person, and is it rising?
- Disposable income(45%)
- CNY per year, urban
- GDP per resident(35%)
- GRP ÷ population
- Real GRP growth(20%)
- % year on year
Market scale
25%How big is the prize if the first two pillars hold?
- Gross regional product(60%)
- 亿元
- Population(40%)
- 万人
Policy access
15%What do published designations let a brand actually do here — bonded stock, duty-free, faster clearance?
- Intl consumption centre(35 pts)
- designation, 2021
- Free Trade Zone(30 pts)
- designation, 2013–2023
- Services opening pilot(20 pts)
- designation, 2021–2022
- Offshore duty-free(15 pts)
- Hainan only
How the score is calculated
- Every input is converted to a percentile rank within the 51 scored cities, so the strongest city on that metric scores 100 and the weakest 0. Rank scaling is deliberate: Shanghai's GDP is roughly seventeen times Sanya's, and a min–max scale would flatten every other city into the bottom of the range.
- Inputs are averaged within each pillar using the published weights, giving pillar scores from 0 to 100. Policy is not ranked — it is an absolute score built from four published designations, because a variable that is mostly yes-or-no would be distorted by percentile scaling.
- The pillars are averaged into the overall YCEI score: digital access 30%, consumer depth 30%, scale 25%, policy 15%. Digital and consumer depth carry the most weight because they are what a brand can actually act on; policy is capped low because it is a modifier, not a market.
- Bands are fixed thresholds on the overall score: priority ≥ 72, established ≥ 55, developing ≥ 40, emerging below 40.
YCEI = 0.30·Digital + 0.30·Consumer + 0.25·Scale + 0.15·Policy
Digital = 0.30·XHS + 0.25·WeChat + 0.25·Douyin + 0.20·Internet
Consumer = 0.45·Income + 0.35·GDP per capita + 0.20·Growth
Scale = 0.60·GRP + 0.40·Population
Policy = 35·ICC + 30·FTZ + 20·Services + 15·DutyFree
Full ranking, 2025
All 51 scored cities. Click through for the profile, business districts and entry notes.
| # | City | Province / region | YCEI | Digital | Consumer | Scale | Policy | GDP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shanghai上海 | east | 86.0 | 77.1 | 84.3 | 99.2 | 85.0 | $760B |
| 2 | Beijing北京 | north | 85.1 | 72.2 | 87.9 | 97.2 | 85.0 | $702B |
| 3 | Guangzhou广州 | south | 82.6 | 81.9 | 74.2 | 92.0 | 85.0 | $437B |
| 4 | Shenzhen深圳 | south | 81.7 | 90.7 | 88.8 | 93.6 | 30.0 | $546B |
| 5 | Hangzhou杭州 | east | 74.6 | 76.8 | 77.2 | 83.6 | 50.0 | $324B |
| 6 | Suzhou苏州 | east | 71.7 | 59.9 | 91.6 | 86.8 | 30.0 | $390B |
| 7 | Wuhan武汉 | central | 71.2 | 72.2 | 68.8 | 85.6 | 50.0 | $312B |
| 8 | Chengdu成都 | southwest | 69.6 | 76.9 | 54.9 | 90.4 | 50.0 | $349B |
| 9 | Chongqing重庆 | southwest | 68.7 | 65.9 | 40.3 | 96.4 | 85.0 | $453B |
| 10 | Ningbo宁波 | east | 66.3 | 58.2 | 85.4 | 74.8 | 30.0 | $264B |
| 11 | Changsha长沙 | central | 64.0 | 78.8 | 57.4 | 74.8 | 30.0 | $222B |
| 12 | Nanjing南京 | east | 63.8 | 67.9 | 74.8 | 72.0 | 20.0 | $261B |
| 13 | Wuxi无锡 | east | 59.9 | 58.6 | 87.7 | 64.0 | 0.0 | $236B |
| 14 | Qingdao青岛 | east | 59.0 | 52.9 | 66.7 | 74.4 | 30.0 | $235B |
| 15 | Xiamen厦门 | east | 57.6 | 70.7 | 74.0 | 38.8 | 30.0 | $126B |
| 16 | Dongguan东莞 | south | 56.2 | 68.8 | 64.0 | 65.6 | 0.0 | $190B |
| 17 | Fuzhou福州 | east | 53.3 | 46.5 | 65.9 | 60.4 | 30.0 | $213B |
| 18 | Hefei合肥 | east | 53.2 | 47.3 | 58.3 | 68.0 | 30.0 | $200B |
| 19 | Jinan济南 | east | 53.0 | 52.7 | 58.8 | 60.4 | 30.0 | $191B |
| 20 | Xi'an西安 | northwest | 50.5 | 57.7 | 34.1 | 74.0 | 30.0 | $196B |
| 21 | Foshan佛山 | south | 50.1 | 59.7 | 57.8 | 59.6 | 0.0 | $188B |
| 22 | Wenzhou温州 | east | 49.3 | 49.2 | 65.1 | 60.0 | 0.0 | $144B |
| 23 | Zhengzhou郑州 | central | 49.0 | 48.2 | 36.2 | 76.8 | 30.0 | $215B |
| 24 | Quanzhou泉州 | east | 48.0 | 43.9 | 67.6 | 58.4 | 0.0 | $194B |
| 25 | Zhuhai珠海 | south | 46.7 | 59.4 | 72.6 | 10.4 | 30.0 | $66B |
| 26 | Jinhua金华 | east | 46.4 | 53.2 | 56.3 | 36.4 | 30.0 | $97B |
| 27 | Shaoxing绍兴 | east | 46.4 | 45.1 | 80.5 | 34.8 | 0.0 | $114B |
| 28 | Shenyang沈阳 | northeast | 44.9 | 43.8 | 36.3 | 53.6 | 50.0 | $128B |
| 29 | Dalian大连 | northeast | 43.8 | 40.0 | 49.6 | 49.6 | 30.0 | $141B |
| 30 | Kunming昆明 | southwest | 40.2 | 47.5 | 32.5 | 46.8 | 30.0 | $122B |
| 31 | Yangzhou扬州 | east | 39.3 | 41.3 | 64.8 | 30.0 | 0.0 | $110B |
| 32 | Jiaxing嘉兴 | east | 38.5 | 35.0 | 66.0 | 32.8 | 0.0 | $105B |
| 33 | Taizhou台州 | east | 35.2 | 35.9 | 53.4 | 33.6 | 0.0 | $93B |
| 34 | Wuhu芜湖 | east | 35.1 | 33.1 | 57.2 | 14.0 | 30.0 | $72B |
| 35 | Shijiazhuang石家庄 | north | 35.0 | 31.6 | 20.3 | 60.0 | 30.0 | $122B |
| 36 | Sanya三亚 | south | 34.6 | 66.5 | 16.5 | 0.0 | 65.0 | $13B |
| 37 | Nanchang南昌 | east | 31.2 | 31.8 | 38.8 | 40.0 | 0.0 | $115B |
| 38 | Haikou海口 | south | 30.6 | 49.5 | 17.8 | 2.8 | 65.0 | $36B |
| 39 | Nanning南宁 | south | 27.6 | 32.0 | 12.8 | 38.8 | 30.0 | $87B |
| 40 | Guiyang贵阳 | southwest | 27.3 | 38.8 | 28.6 | 28.4 | 0.0 | $85B |
| 41 | Urumqi乌鲁木齐 | northwest | 26.6 | 27.2 | 36.2 | 12.4 | 30.0 | $66B |
| 42 | Harbin哈尔滨 | northeast | 26.2 | 32.7 | 2.4 | 44.8 | 30.0 | $87B |
| 43 | Zhongshan中山 | south | 26.0 | 37.0 | 39.4 | 12.4 | 0.0 | $58B |
| 44 | Changchun长春 | northeast | 24.5 | 28.8 | 15.1 | 45.6 | 0.0 | $113B |
| 45 | Huizhou惠州 | south | 24.3 | 31.3 | 27.6 | 26.4 | 0.0 | $84B |
| 46 | Hohhot呼和浩特 | north | 23.8 | 24.3 | 47.1 | 9.6 | 0.0 | $60B |
| 47 | Luoyang洛阳 | central | 22.9 | 27.9 | 9.8 | 28.4 | 30.0 | $82B |
| 48 | Taiyuan太原 | north | 19.2 | 22.4 | 22.8 | 22.4 | 0.0 | $76B |
| 49 | Guilin桂林 | south | 18.6 | 51.2 | 2.2 | 10.4 | 0.0 | $38B |
| 50 | Liuzhou柳州 | south | 13.2 | 32.4 | 4.8 | 8.4 | 0.0 | $43B |
| 51 | Lanzhou兰州 | northwest | 13.0 | 16.9 | 17.8 | 10.4 | 0.0 | $55B |
Profiled but not scored
- Hong Kong — Separate platform ecosystem - WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook carry most social reach, so mainland penetration figures are not a comparable access measure.
- Macao — Separate platform ecosystem - Hong Kong and international platforms dominate, so mainland penetration figures are not a comparable access measure.
What the index does not measure
- It scores entry conditions, not brand fit. A category with no local demand can score 80 and still be the wrong first city.
- It says nothing about competition. Two cities with identical scores can differ completely in how crowded your category already is.
- It cannot see cost. Media CPMs, retail rents and distributor margins vary by more than the scores do, and they decide your payback period.
- Platform penetration is an estimate. It is modelled, not read from a platform dashboard, and it should never be used as a media reach figure.
- Policy access is binary. A city either holds a designation or it does not, so the pillar cannot tell a well-run free trade zone from a nameplate. It also only tracks four designations; city-level incentives that are not published nationally are invisible to it.
- Scores are relative to this release. Adding or removing cities moves every score, so do not compare a 2025 score with a 2026 score.
Bands: priority ≥ 72 · established ≥ 55 · developing ≥ 40 · emerging below 40. Field definitions and source agencies are on the methodology page.
Questions about the index
+What is the YIVA China City Entry Index?
YCEI is a 0–100 entry score for each of the 51 Chinese cities in the YIVA China Market Guide. "Entry" is the operative word: it asks whether a brand could start selling in a city — can you reach the consumers (30%), do they have the spending power (30%), is the market big enough to justify the fixed cost (25%), and do published designations let you operate the way you want (15%). It is a verdict on entry conditions, not on how large the local economy is.
+How is the policy pillar scored?
It is the only pillar not ranked against peers. Each city is checked against four published designations — International Consumption Centre (35 points), Free Trade Zone membership (30), services opening-up pilot (20) and Hainan offshore duty-free (15). The weights sum to exactly 100, so a city holding all four scores 100 and a city holding none scores 0; nothing is rescaled. A mostly binary variable does not deserve percentile treatment: ranking it would turn one missing designation into a twenty-point gap.
+How is the index calculated?
Each input is converted to a percentile rank within the published city set, so the best city scores 100 and the worst 0. Inputs are averaged into the pillar scores using fixed weights, and the pillars are averaged into the overall score. Policy access is the exception and is scored on an absolute scale — see below. All weights are published and do not change between annual releases without a version note.
+Why are Hong Kong and Macao not scored?
Hong Kong and Macao are profiled in the guide but excluded from the index. Their social reach runs through WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook rather than WeChat and Douyin, so mainland platform penetration is not a comparable access measure there.
+Does a high score mean I should enter that city first?
No. The index measures entry conditions only: reach, spending power, size and policy. Entry order also depends on category demand, competitor density, channel availability, media cost and your own margin structure. Use the score to shortlist, then validate with the city profile and a pilot.
+Can I cite or reuse the index?
Yes, with attribution to YIVA Digital and a link to this page. The underlying city and province dataset is downloadable as JSON or CSV under CC BY 4.0 with a free API key.
These answers are also published as FAQPage structured data, so they can be quoted directly by search and AI answer engines.
Download the full dataset
Every scored city and province as JSON or CSV, including derived metrics and YCEI pillar scores. Free with a YIVA account — the key takes about a minute to create.
/api/public/dataset?file=china-cities.json/api/public/dataset?file=china-cities.csv/api/public/dataset?file=china-provinces.json/api/public/dataset?file=china-provinces.csvcurl -H "Authorization: Bearer $YIVA_API_KEY" \
"https://yivadigital.com/api/public/dataset?file=china-cities.json"Licence: CC BY 4.0 — attribution to YIVA Digital, link to this guide. Official statistics remain the property of the National Bureau of Statistics. The release excludes YIVA's qualitative entry notes and business-district lists; those stay in the city profiles.
Cite this page
YIVA Digital. “YIVA China City Entry Index (YCEI) 2025.” YIVA Digital, 2025. https://yivadigital.com/tool/china-market-guide/city-entry-index
Relative index over 51 cities; not comparable across annual releases.