Executive Summary

We adopt and modify the widely used Jorgenson-Fraumeni lifetime income approach (here after referred to as the J-F approach) to calculate China's human capital stock and estimate its distribution and trend.            

Due to lack of data, the J-F approach cannot be directly applied to the measurement of human capital in China. Following widely accepted methods based on the theory of human capital, we combine micro survey data with macro data and modify J-F approach to fill in missing values in the Chinese data. Our approach allows us to systematically estimate China's human capital stocks at both the national and provincial levels. We use the results of these calculations to also build various human capital indexes.  

In this report we present our calculations of China's human capital stocks of China at the national level from 1985 to 2020, including total human capital and human capital per capita for rural and urban residents, males and females, and analyze their distributions and trends. In addition, human capital stocks are estimated and analyzed for 33 provinces and municipalities: Beijing, Tianjin, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunna-n, Fujian, Hebei, Ningxia, Hong Kong and Taiwan.    

We calculate a series of new provincial indexes for the year 2020, i.e., labor force average age, labor force average schooling years, and proportions of the labor force at different levels of education. We also compare various measures of the labor force among the Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Our results comprise more precise and up to date measures of the composition of the labor force across provinces and regions than have been available to date.    

Our report presents s China’s human capital data as a panel available for intensive research. We also provide estimates at the national level and provincial level of China's physical capital stock for the same period. We also provide a living cost adjustment index(i.e., purchasing power parity index) useful for cross-province comparison of money values.

The entire data set of human capital, physical capital and related provincial data living cost adjustment index. And all the raw and processed data will be released to the public for research purposes at now change.

If you want to download more relevant data, please go to the website of Central University of Finance and economics & University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Joint Research Data Center.

If you have any queries, please email:

Kai Wang: 18811572206@163.com

Mengyuan Wu: wmy18873283969@163.com

Xiaoyuan Kang: 980581568@qq.com

Xue Chen: chenxue_cecilia@126.com