The rankings of China's top 10 provincial economies by total output for the first three quarters of this year have been finalized.
Arranged from highest to lowest by gross domestic product (GDP), the top 10 provinces are: Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Henan, Hubei, Fujian, Shanghai, and Anhui.
Compared with the same period last year, the most significant change is that Anhui surpassed Hunan to claim the last spot among the top 10.
As early as the first half of this year, Anhui overtook Hunan by a margin of 33.643 billion yuan to join the national top 10. In the first three quarters, Anhui maintained its lead over Hunan with an advantage of 76.434 billion yuan, with Anhui's third-quarter economic output exceeding Hunan's by 42.791 billion yuan, further widening the GDP gap between the two.
An analysis of the third-quarter reports from various provinces reveals that emerging industries have become the core driver for major economic provinces to widen their growth gaps. Key sectors such as integrated circuits and intelligent equipment posted strong growth in the third quarter, exports of "new three" products performed impressively, and foreign trade volumes continued to achieve breakthroughs.
As the year enters its final sprint, what new changes have emerged in the national economic landscape? What new signals have major economic provinces released?
Guangdong Leads Nationally in Both Total and Increment, Jiangxi Surpasses Shaanxi
Overall, in the first three quarters of 2026, the economic landscape of China's 31 provinces largely continued the pattern from the first half, with no new changes in the rankings of the top 10 GDP provinces. Among them, eastern coastal provinces maintained their leading advantage in total economic output, while central and western provinces demonstrated stronger vitality in economic growth rates.
A review by Southern Finance reporters found that all top 10 provinces exceeded 4 trillion yuan in total economic output. Among them, Guangdong's GDP reached 11.109077 trillion yuan, continuing to rank first nationwide. Jiangsu followed closely behind, with GDP reaching 10.86313 trillion yuan in the first three quarters, ranking second nationally.
In terms of economic increment in the first three quarters, among the top 10 GDP provinces, Guangdong led with an increment of 591.977 billion yuan, while Jiangsu ranked second with an increment of 582.03 billion yuan.
Industrial production, especially advanced manufacturing, was the primary driver of economic growth for both Guangdong and Jiangsu in the first three quarters.
In terms of supporting momentum, in the first three quarters of 2026, Guangdong's GDP grew 4.6% year-on-year, 0.1 percentage points higher than in the first half, achieving growth in sync with the national average. Specifically, Guangdong's advantageous industries played a prominent supporting role. The three major sectors of industry, finance, and information services formed core support, together contributing over 70% to economic growth. Among them, industry contributed 45.5%, with the share of industrial value-added in regional GDP rising to 34%. Particularly since the beginning of this year, the AI wave has driven rapid expansion in the electronics sector, with value-added of large-scale computer, communication, and other electronic equipment manufacturing maintaining double-digit growth at 11.2%, driving Guangdong's large-scale industrial value-added up by 3.2 percentage points and contributing over 50% to large-scale industry.
Meanwhile, foreign trade reached new breakthroughs, providing new impetus for Guangdong's economy. In the first three quarters, Guangdong's total imports and exports exceeded the 8 trillion yuan mark for the first time in history for the same period, accounting for 21.8% of the national total, growing 24.5% year-on-year, 3.7 percentage points faster than in the first half.
The development of emerging industries became a new growth driver for Jiangsu's economy. In the first three quarters of 2026, Jiangsu's large-scale high-tech manufacturing value-added grew 15.1%, and high-tech services revenue steadily expanded. High-tech industries contributed over one-half and one-third to industrial and services growth respectively, with high-tech industries, digital industries, and emerging industries becoming the main growth drivers.
The rapid development of AI-related industries was also a highlight of Jiangsu's economy. In the first three quarters, Jiangsu's large-scale digital product manufacturing value-added grew 13.7%, with integrated circuits and electronic circuits growing 28.3% and 25.4% respectively; industrial robot and robot reducer output grew 47.1% and 44.6% respectively.
In terms of foreign trade exports, high-end products became an important force in Jiangsu's export growth. In the first three quarters, Jiangsu's mechanical and electrical product exports accounted for 75.1%, driving export growth by nearly 25 percentage points. High value-added products such as computer parts, ships, and smart terminals grew substantially, as Jiangsu's foreign trade transitions from "scale exports" to "quality exports and technology exports."
After Guangdong and Jiangsu, Shandong's GDP broke through the 8 trillion yuan mark in the first three quarters of 2026, firmly holding third place at 8.2309 trillion yuan. Sichuan and Henan joined the "5 trillion yuan club" for the first time, forming a "second tier." Among them, Sichuan's GDP reached 5.212145 trillion yuan and Henan's reached 5.189932 trillion yuan, with year-on-year growth rates 0.3 and 0.4 percentage points above the national average respectively.
The biggest highlight of Henan's economy came from foreign trade. Statistics show that in the first three quarters, Henan's total goods imports and exports reached 816.84 billion yuan, exceeding 800 billion yuan for the first time in the same period in history, growing 26.7% year-on-year, 7.9 percentage points above the national average. Among them, exports were 488.55 billion yuan, up 15.7%; imports were 328.29 billion yuan, up 47.6%.
In the top 20 list, compared with the GDP rankings for the first three quarters of 2025, Jiangxi's GDP surpassed Shaanxi's, rising from 15th to 14th place, while other provinces maintained their rankings. According to Jiangxi Daily, in the first three quarters of this year, Jiangxi's total goods trade imports and exports reached 421.3 billion yuan, growing 19.4% year-on-year. In addition, Jiangxi's high-end manufacturing accelerated its expansion. In the first three quarters, Jiangxi's equipment manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing value-added growth rates were 4.9 and 6.4 percentage points higher than large-scale industrial growth, with their shares increasing compared with the same period last year. Exports of "new three" products surged, providing strong support for Jiangxi's economic overtaking. Rising demand for new energy vehicles and energy storage drove Jiangxi's lithium battery industry value-added up 21.1% year-on-year. The "new content" and "green content" of export products also continued to increase, with "new three" product exports growing 32.1% year-on-year, of which electric passenger vehicle exports maintained growth of more than double.
Shandong and Zhejiang Post Fastest Growth, Anhui Ranks High in Increment
In terms of economic growth rates in the first three quarters, the top 10 GDP provinces ranked from highest to lowest are: Shandong (5.6%), Zhejiang (5.6%), Shanghai (5.5%), Anhui (5.3%), Jiangsu (5.2%), Henan (5.0%), Sichuan (4.9%), Hubei (4.7%), Guangdong (4.6%), and Fujian (3.9%).
Zhejiang and Shandong led the way, both with growth rates of 5.6%.
In the first three quarters of this year, Shandong delivered a solid report card. As a major industrial province, industry is Shandong's "ballast stone." In the first three quarters, Shandong's large-scale industrial value-added grew 7.4% year-on-year, 0.4 percentage points faster than in the first half and 2.1 percentage points above the national average. In the first half of this year, Shandong's industry came under pressure at one point, with large-scale industrial value-added growing 7.3% in January-April, slowing to 6.7% in January-May; entering the third quarter, Shandong focused its efforts precisely, and industrial growth climbed steadily, reaching 7.4% in January-September.
Currently, Shandong is taking next-generation intelligent manufacturing as its main direction, deeply advancing digital and intelligent transformation of manufacturing to empower the renewal and upgrading of traditional industries. Data shows that in the first three quarters, Shandong's high-tech manufacturing value-added grew 13.1%, 5.7 percentage points above large-scale industry. Most notably, lithium-ion battery output growth reached 195.4% in the first three quarters. The rapid development of high-tech manufacturing also helped Shandong deliver strong export results and further fed back into industrial investment growth. In foreign trade, in the first three quarters, Shandong's automobile exports grew 46.2%, and "new three" product exports reached 14.65 billion yuan, up 40.9%, with electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products growing 27.9%, 63.2%, and 52.4% respectively. In the first three quarters, Shandong organized 6,500 enterprises to participate in 440 overseas exhibition and trade events, producing a batch of blockbuster export products for 2026 such as integrated housing and integrated solar-storage solutions. In industrial investment, in the first three quarters, Shandong's hydropower and wind power industry investment grew 103.1% and 55.9% respectively, with major projects such as offshore wind power, pumped storage, and nuclear power continuously landing, and the investment structure continuing to shift toward green and new sectors.
Zhejiang's growth rate kept pace with Shandong. In the first three quarters, Zhejiang's large-scale industrial value-added grew 7.8% year-on-year, with emerging industries being the fastest-growing areas. Specifically, in the first three quarters, Zhejiang's automobile, computer communication electronics, and general equipment manufacturing value-added grew 20.3%, 19.5%, and 10.1% respectively. High-tech manufacturing, digital economy core industry manufacturing, and equipment manufacturing value-added grew 16.0%, 15.8%, and 12.9% respectively. AI terminal and intelligent equipment product output continued to grow rapidly, with service robots, industrial control computers and systems, and industrial robots growing 91.0%, 50.6%, and 37.5% respectively.
Among central provinces, Hubei, Henan, and Anhui all posted GDP growth rates above the national average in the first three quarters of 2026. Anhui's GDP growth reached 5.3%, ranking fourth nationally, while Henan's GDP growth also reached 5.0%, exceeding the national average by 0.4 percentage points.
In terms of increment, Anhui ranked fifth nationally with an increment of 293.1 billion yuan, with both industry and foreign trade working together to support Anhui's substantial economic growth.
First, advanced manufacturing made outstanding contributions to Anhui. Anhui's high-tech manufacturing contribution rate to large-scale industrial value-added growth climbed month by month, exceeding 70% in July, August, and September. Second, in foreign trade, in the first three quarters of this year, Anhui's general trade imports and exports reached 737.28 billion yuan, up 46.1%, accounting for 74.5% of the province's total foreign trade, 14.6 percentage points above the national average. The development of high-tech manufacturing further enhanced export resilience. In the first three quarters, Anhui's equipment manufacturing played a prominent leading role, with automobile exports reaching 1.728 million units, up 1.2 times; export value of 181.11 billion yuan, up 1.1 times, with both export volume and value ranking first nationally. Notebook computer exports reached 40.89 billion yuan, up 6.6%. During the same period, exports of "new three" products reached 145.46 billion yuan, up 1.3 times, accounting for 20.9% of the province's total exports, 7.9 percentage points higher than the same period last year.
In the view of industry experts, major economic provinces across the country pushed forward under pressure in the first three quarters, moving toward new and better development, with positive changes increasing in major indicators and new achievements in high-quality development. At the same time, it should be noted that the international environment remains complex and volatile, the problem of insufficient domestic demand remains prominent, and the foundation for steady economic improvement still needs to be consolidated. For major economic provinces, the next stage still requires greater efforts to expand domestic demand and optimize supply, promoting economic development toward new, better, and more positive directions.
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