China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that nationwide per‑person disposable income reached 43,377 yuan in 2025, a 5.0% increase year‑on‑year in both nominal and real terms. The median disposable income was 36,231 yuan, up 4.4%, highlighting that income growth remains skewed toward higher earners even as averages rise. Urban residents earned 56,502 yuan on average, while rural residents averaged 24,456 yuan, leaving an urban‑to‑rural ratio of 2.31 that narrowed only slightly from the prior year.
The bulletin also laid out wide disparities across the income distribution: the bottom quintile averaged 10,150 yuan while the top quintile averaged 103,778 yuan. Those numbers underscore a familiar theme in China’s post‑pandemic recovery — headline income growth together with persistent inequality that keeps many households constrained in their spending. Median income growth lagging the mean signals that gains remain concentrated at the top, limiting the potential breadth of consumption expansion.
Household consumption rose modestly alongside incomes. National per‑capita consumption expenditure was 29,476 yuan in 2025, up 4.4% in real terms, and service spending accounted for 46.1% of that total, reflecting continued consumer preference shifts toward services. Consumption composition remains weighted toward essentials: food, tobacco and alcohol made up 29.3% of spending, housing 21.7%, and transport and communications about 14.6%.
Beijing is explicit about trying to convert income gains into sustained domestic demand. The central economic work conference has directed the launch of an urban‑rural resident income‑raising plan, and the State Council has been pushing a package of consumption‑boosting measures and a longer‑term “expand consumption” strategy. The National Development and Reform Commission has called for raising the share of national income that flows to households, boosting labor compensation and strengthening direct, consumer‑facing subsidies and social spending.
Policy prescriptions from market economists echo those priorities but point to implementation challenges. Luo Zhiheng, chief economist at Guangfa Securities, told Chinese media that measures such as increased transfers from state‑owned enterprises to the treasury, higher grain procurement prices, stronger dividend policies from listed companies, and a more robust pension floor are the practical levers to lift household incomes. He emphasised that raising pensions to at least the minimum living standard and dedicating additional state‑asset remittances to social insurance would do more to change consumption incentives than temporary stimulus alone.
For global observers, the numbers matter beyond their domestic political implications. China’s effort to rebalance growth toward household consumption — central to its “dual circulation” strategy — affects import patterns for consumer goods and services, commodities tied to housing and infrastructure, and multinational firms targeting Chinese consumers. Yet the modest pace of real consumption growth, concentrated income gains, and reliance on fiscal transfers and SOE remittances to fund redistributive measures mean the trajectory of China’s consumption renaissance is uncertain.
The statistical picture is mixed: incomes are rising and service spending is taking a larger share of wallets, but the pace and distribution of gains constrain the potential for a broad, self‑sustaining consumer upswing. Policymakers face the dual task of raising both the level and the security of household incomes — through wages, pensions and targeted transfers — while addressing structural bottlenecks such as aging demographics and regional inequality that mute private‑sector demand growth.