Ranked first in population growth and industrial growth rate! This provincial capital has exploded!
01
Hefei, Ranking First in Industrial Growth Rate
Hefei, the strongest dark horse in the past two decades, still shines brightly and continues its glory.
In the first three quarters, Hefei ranked first among trillion - level cities in terms of industrial growth rate, reaching a staggering 15.2%, the highest growth rate in 44 months.
Ultimately, it drove Hefei's GDP growth by 5.9%, ranking third among trillion - GDP cities, only after Yantai and Tangshan.
Charting: Urban Finance; Data: Statistics Bureaus of Each City
Behind Hefei's industrial sprint is the credit of its leading industries.
The Hefei Statistics Bureau disclosed that the electronic information and automobile industries have made outstanding contributions. The added values of the computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries and the automobile manufacturing industry increased significantly by 46.6% and 10.4% respectively, and their combined contribution rate to the growth of above - scale industries exceeded 80%. The output of major products has increased rapidly. The outputs of lithium - ion batteries, semiconductor discrete devices, charging piles, notebook computers, industrial robots, etc. have all achieved double - digit high - speed growth.
Specifically, in the first three quarters, the output of lithium - ion batteries was 36.668 million, a year - on - year increase of 54.5%; the output of semiconductor discrete devices was 2.87 billion, a year - on - year increase of 52.2%.
The output of microcomputer equipment was 20.6214 million units, a year - on - year increase of 26.6%; the output of liquid crystal displays was 492 million pieces, a year - on - year increase of 10.3%; the output of industrial robots was 31,750 sets, a year - on - year increase of 25.6%.
Source: Hefei Statistics Bureau
In addition, the output of color televisions in the first three quarters was 5.0503 million units, a year - on - year increase of 23.8%; the output of transformers increased by 32.3% year - on - year.
Hefei has evolved from a small county town into a "double - trillion" city with a population of over ten million and a GDP of over one trillion. Essentially, it is the result of the city's industrial explosion.
After twenty years of rapid development, Hefei still has a strong industrial growth rate. According to this trend, there is a high probability that Hefei will be among the top fifteen cities in the next decade.
02
Hefei, the Strongest Dark Horse in the Past Twenty Years
Taking a twenty - year span, Hefei is undoubtedly the fastest - growing city among the 27 provincial capitals and autonomous region capitals.
The past twenty years have been a leap - forward stage for Hefei in terms of both economic and population growth.
In terms of GDP, Hefei ranked 47th among national cities in 2004, rose to 25th in 2014, and ranked 19th in 2024, climbing 28 places in twenty years.
Among provincial - level capitals, Hefei ranked 16th in 2004 and 10th in 2024, rising 6 places in twenty years. It is the provincial capital with the fastest - rising ranking, without a doubt.
In addition, Hefei's GDP has increased from 89.667 billion yuan to 1.35077 trillion yuan in the past twenty years, with a nominal increase of up to 1406.43%, also ranking first among the 27 cities.
Charting: Urban Finance; Data: Statistics Bureaus of Each City
The rapid economic growth has led to a large - scale influx of population. Especially in the past three years, when the population growth of other central cities has slowed down, Hefei's population growth has been more prominent.
In 2023, Hefei's permanent population increased by 219,000, ranking first in the country. In 2024, the increase was 149,000, ranking fourth in the country.
In the past three years, Hefei's permanent population has increased by 537,000, ranking first in the country. Guiyang ranks second.
Hangzhou, Changsha, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, Xi'an, Ningbo, Nanchang, Qingdao, Kunming, Jinan, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Nanjing, Hohhot, Suzhou, Nanning, and Shenyang rank among the top twenty in terms of population increase.
Charting: Urban Finance; Data: Statistics Bureaus of Each City
With the assistance of population increase, Hefei's permanent population has successively surpassed that of Nanjing and Ningbo in the Yangtze River Delta in the past few years, ranking fourth in the Yangtze River Delta in terms of population size, only after Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Suzhou.
In 2024, Hefei's permanent population exceeded ten million, becoming the 18th city in the country with a population of over ten million.
Charting: Urban Finance; Data: Statistics Bureaus of Each City
03
Hefei, a City That Has Changed Its Fate Miraculously
This account believes that Hefei's success is due to four factors:
First, having a low starting point means it has no historical burdens.
Compared with other cities, Hefei doesn't have too heavy historical burdens, so it can move forward bravely with a light load.
Second, it dares to take bold gambles and has unique insights. With these qualities, Hefei has gathered eight emerging industrial systems, such as "Chip, Display, Automobile, and Integration" and "Aggregation, Life - science, Intelligence", and has great potential in the future.
Zhang Henshui, a writer from Anhui, described Hefei at the time of liberation in his travelogue "Beijing - Shanghai Travel Magazine":
The urban area was only 5 square kilometers, with a population of less than 60,000. There was one road with three street lights, and one loudspeaker could be heard throughout the city. A small river ran through the city, and there was only one two - story building.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, among the four cities of Anqing, Bengbu, Wuhu, and Hefei, Hefei finally won and became the capital of Anhui Province.
Anqing, an old - established provincial capital, is located along the Yangtze River. Due to the unstable factors in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic, many people were worried that if the provincial capital was set in Anqing, a strategic town along the river and between Nanjing and Wuhan, in case of a new war, the enemy might capture two provincial capitals in one day.
Wuhu and Bengbu actually had better conditions than Hefei at that time, but Wuhu is too close to Nanjing, and Bengbu has always been regarded as the northern gateway of Nanjing in history. Both faced similar dilemmas as Anqing. At the same time, in order to "de - Nanjingize", Hefei finally won.
Hefei's development didn't show much brilliance later. Like Zhengzhou, it was regarded as a small county town.
Its real rise started in the 21st century. After the strategy of "Building the City through Industry" was introduced in Hefei in 2005, it began to seek new industrial development paths.
The first step to success was binding with BOE. In 2007, BOE, which was struggling in the financial crisis, sought financing support from local governments. Amidst the controversy, Hefei promised to invest one - third of its annual fiscal revenue in BOE's project to build the first domestic 6 - generation liquid crystal panel production line - "The Transformation of Hefei" began from then on.
Investing in BOE was the beginning of Hefei's bold gamble. The Hefei government invested 6 billion yuan, and strategic investors invested 3 billion yuan. If strategic investment could not be attracted, the remaining 8.5 billion yuan would be solved through loans with the support of the Hefei government. At that time, Hefei's fiscal revenue was only 30 billion yuan.
In return, BOE has developed very well later. Its industrial chain has been continuously upgraded, and it has grown into a leading enterprise in the global screen display industry. At the same time, it has driven more than 70 supporting enterprises to develop in Hefei, making Hefei one of the world's largest display industry bases and radiating the entire semiconductor industry. Thus, Hefei has reached the high - point of the screen display industry.
At the same time, since it received the University of Science and Technology of China, a university with a very high domestic and international ranking, it has brought a large number of basic scientific research facilities to Hefei and the title of a comprehensive national science center. Quantum computers have become a resounding calling card for Hefei.
After that, Hefei also seized the opportunities in the new - energy vehicle and chip industries.
In 2019, when NIO, which was at a loss, failed to seek financing support from multiple local cities, Hefei extended an olive branch. In 2020, NIO signed a gambling agreement with Hefei, and NIO's Chinese headquarters was located in Hefei, enabling Hefei to successfully seize the opportunity of the era.
After joining hands with NIO, Hefei has also been continuously upgrading the industrial level of Jianghuai, a local automobile brand, especially in the field of new - energy vehicles.
As of now, Hefei has successively implemented more than 50 new - energy vehicle - related industrial projects, such as the Jianghuai - Volkswagen new - energy vehicle project, the Jianghuai - NIO new - energy vehicle project, and the second - phase project of Changan Automobile. It has also gathered upstream and downstream enterprises such as NIO, Jianghuai, Guoxuan High - tech, Huating Power, and Juyi Technology, forming a complete industrial chain covering the whole vehicle, key components, applications, and supporting services.
Hefei's blueprint for the future of the new - energy vehicle industry is as follows: By 2025, breakthrough progress will be made in cultivating a world - class automobile industrial cluster. The output value of new - energy vehicles will exceed 300 billion yuan. The production capacity of new - energy vehicles will reach 1.5 million, and the output of new - energy vehicles will account for more than 50% of the city's total automobile output and more than 25% of the national output. A number of internationally well - known brands will be cultivated.
With the explosion of new - energy vehicle production, Hefei has set a new goal: Strive to have 2 - 3 enterprises with an annual output of 500,000 vehicles, add 10 component enterprises with a scale of 10 billion yuan, have a new - energy vehicle production capacity of more than 3 million, and a cluster revenue of more than 700 billion yuan by 2027.
Hefei has grown into a heavyweight player in the new - energy vehicle track.
In terms of chips, in 2017, the Hefei government and GigaDevice Semiconductor established a joint - venture company, Hefei Changxin, specializing in the R & D and production of dynamic random - access memory (DRAM) chips, and attracted a large number of upstream and downstream industries to settle in.
In the 2021 ranking of the competitiveness of integrated circuits in Chinese mainland cities, Hefei ranked sixth in the country. The outputs of terminal products such as smart watches, color TVs, and notebook computers have also entered the top ranks in the country and the world.
Industries boost economic take - off and population expansion.
In 2015, Hefei's GDP exceeded 500 billion yuan. Five years later, in 2020, Hefei's GDP doubled, and it successfully joined the trillion - club.
Today's Hefei is vastly different from the Hefei that Zhang Henshui saw back then: The area of the municipal district is 1,339 square kilometers, with a GDP of 1.35077 trillion yuan in 2024 and a permanent population of 10.002 million. Hefei's venture - capital model is now being learned by many cities.
Third, the strong - provincial - capital strategy.
In previous articles, I have repeatedly emphasized the view that there is no absolute good or bad between the strong - provincial - capital strategy and balanced development. What suits oneself is the best. Or rather, the strong - provincial - capital strategy and balanced development are just the needs of different eras and different strengths in regional development.
Most inland cities in China follow the strong - provincial - capital model, and Anhui and Guizhou are no exceptions. For these two provinces, this is undoubtedly the right path.
After years of implementing the strong - provincial - capital strategy, Hefei now has an economic primacy ratio of 26.9%, which means that more than a quarter of the GDP is concentrated in the