This isn't really news to the world, but it's news to me. The highest average gross income in 2011 was in Beijing at 4672 RMB, or about $752 per month. The province I currently live in, Zhejiang tops the list of the provinces, with 3888 RMB, or $626 per month. The poorest is Gansu, at 2742 RMB, or $442 per month (
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-07/06/content_15555503.htm).
To get a more realistic sense of what that money can buy locally, we should adjust the numbers by the World Bank's purchasing power conversion factor, found at
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/PA.NUS.PPP. Since an American dollar has the purchasing power of 4.19 RMB, but the official exchange rate is actually 6.21, the average Beijing citizen will have the purchasing power of 6.21/4.19 times that. So monthly purchasing power would be:
Beijing: $1115/month;
Zhejiang: $928/month;
Gansu:$655/month.
To put that into perspective further, the average US income is $4009/month (also
http://data.worldbank.org/). Numbers like these make me think for many reasons. One question the plagues me is this: Am I really in solidarity with the majority of people in the world? If you are like me, and you earn more than $2138 a year, you are in the upper 50% (
http://www.policymic.com/articles/2636/compared-to-the-rest-of-the-world-americans-are-all-the-1).
If you want to know just how filthy-stinking-rich you are, check out this calculator:
http://www.globalrichlist.com/.
