Socio-economic trends in Guangdong

This chapter provides an overview of demographic and economic trends of the province within its national context and as compared with OECD member countries. The first section highlights the rapid and deep urbanisation process of the last three decades which is unprecedented in human history. It shows how rapid industrialisation has generated a model featuring strong spatial concentration of people and firms, and the emergence of the Pearl River Delta, a cluster of nine cities, that concentrates more than half of the total population of the province and which has acquired the recognition of “the World’s Factory”, since it has the world’s largest concentration of low and medium value-added manufacturing. The second part of this chapter highlights the position of Guangdong as the largest economy of China.