China has four traditional tier-one cities, with the designation serving as an indicator of population as well as economic development and influence.
Tier-one snapshot and the middle-class boom
Mega cities to middle classBeijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen are the first-generation tier-ones, each a huge metropolis with populations in excess of 18 million people.
Shanghai alone is around 25 million people and, back in 2017, Bloomberg reported that the city already had a GDP higher than the whole of the Philippines.
Then come China’s seven up-and-coming, new tier-one cities: Chongqing, Chengdu, Suzhou, Wuhan, Changsha, Hangzhou and Zhengzhou. Overall, the country boasts around 16-18 ‘megacities’ with populations of 10 million or more.
Alongside the evolution of these cities as economic powerhouses, there is the very rapid growth that China has enjoyed over the last 30-40 years.
These decades have seen millions pulled out of poverty and into the middle class, which NSC research defines as a minimum household disposable 300,000 Middle-class consumers in 2000 184m income of $35,000.
To put this boom into perspective, NSC research shows that the middle-class population in China has grown from about 300,000 people in 2000 to almost 184 million people today.
300,000
Middle-class consumers in 2000
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184m
Middle-class consumers in 2025
As more people enter the middle class, demand for high-value seafood increases.
This move to a more affluent position is the biggest factor in seafood consumption. As more people enter the middle class, demand for high-value seafood increases. And Norwegian seafood, known for its quality, is well positioned to meet this demand.
The march of the middle class is not universal however. NSC research shows that, from 20 different Chinese megacities, Nanjing, Changsha, Suzhou, Beijing and Shanghai will have the largest share of their population in the middle class by 2030, at around 40 percent of each city.
Elsewhere, Guangdong and Zhejiang will increase their middle-class
populations by more than 4 million people.