China's gross domestic product reached 1,401,879 hundred million yuan in 2025, the highest annual figure since the series began in 1960, cementing a 63-year expansion that has reshaped the global economy. The figure marks the first time the economy has crossed the symbolic 1.4 million hundred-million yuan threshold, a milestone that underscores China's transformation from a poor agrarian nation to the world's second-largest economy.
The arc of growth
The 2025 figure is the latest data point in a series that stretches back to 1960, when GDP stood at 1,473.3 hundred million yuan. The economy dipped to its lowest point in 1962 at 1,164.7, reflecting the tail-end of the Great Leap Forward famine, before a gradual takeoff that accelerated in the 1990s.
It took until 1986 for output to crack the 10,000 mark, and until 2003 to surpass 100,000. By 2020, GDP had blown past 1 million, and the latest data confirms that the expansion has now added roughly 400,000 hundred million yuan in just five years. That latest surge alone exceeds the total size of many middle-income economies. For context, the 1962 trough was smaller than the current annual output of a single large Chinese prefecture.
A landmark year
The 2025 reading of 1,401,879 hundred million yuan is the first time the measure has crossed the 1.4 million mark. That puts the economy nearly 1,200 times larger than it was in 1962, when output sank to just 1,164.7. Even in the five years since 2020, the country added roughly 367,000 hundred million yuan — a sum larger than the entire GDP of many advanced economies.
By the numbers
Over the full 66-year series from 1960 to 2025, the average annual GDP is 259,865.2 hundred million yuan, while the total cumulative output across all years reaches 17.15 million hundred million yuan. The dataset shows the economy roughly quadrupled between 2000 and 2010, then doubled again by 2020. The climb from 1,164.7 in 1962 to a towering 1,401,879 in 2025 captures one of the most dramatic economic transformations in modern history.
- Highest: 2025 — 1,401,879 hundred million yuan
- Lowest: 1962 — 1,164.7 hundred million yuan
- Average: 259,865.2 hundred million yuan (1960–2025)
- Cumulative: 17.15 million hundred million yuan over 66 years
- Expansion: roughly 1,200-fold climb from trough to peak
While the headline figure dazzles, the data also carries a reminder: the early years of the series show an economy that was smaller in inflation-adjusted terms than many single provinces are today. Whether the pace can be sustained as China shifts to a consumption-driven model remains the question hanging over the next decade.
Source: World Bank / National Bureau of Statistics · 2026-07-02T21:07:59.440Z
