On November 14, the CCID Consulting's Research Center on County Economies released the 2023 report on central China's top 100 county-level economies. Changsha County, Liuyang County-level City, and Ningxiang County-level City hold the top three spots. The three Changsha places have been among the top 3 on the list for many consecutive years.

The top 100 counties were selected based on an evaluation system on the high-quality development of county-level economies from four aspects, namely, economic strength, growth potential, affluence, and green development. Additionally, considering central counties' economic development in 2022, a dual threshold for evaluation was set up, that is, any county qualified for evaluation should have a GDP of at least 35 billion yuan and a general public budget revenue of at least 1 billion yuan. The purpose was to better demonstrate development quality and efficiency.

Henan Province has the largest number of counties making the list, reaching 28. Hunan Province has 20 counties on the list. Apart from Changsha County (1st), Liuyang County-level City (2nd), and Ningxiang County-level City (3rd), there are also Liling County-level City (12th), Shaodong County-level City (27th), Xiangtan County (42nd), Xiangxiang County-level City (44th), Taoyuan County (46th), Youxian County (53th), Miluo County-level City (55th), Guiyang County (60th), Lixian County (63rd), Yueyang County (71st), Leiyang County-level City (73rd), Changning County-level City (82nd), Hengyang County (87th), Hengnan County (88th), Zixing County-level City (90th), Xiangyin County (93rd), and Qiyang County-level City (96th).

Changsha County, known as the "No.1 county in central and western regions of China", achieved a GDP of 211.442 billion yuan in 2022. The county has been included in China's happiest counties for 16 consecutive years. 

Liuyang, the "Hometown of Fireworks," is also a fertile ground for emerging industries. The county-level city is leveraging its strengths in industry, technology, talent, resources, and mode to build itself into a sub-center of Changsha and a regional center of the Hunan-Jiangxi border area.

In recent years, Ningxiang, based on its own advantages and functional positioning, has made overall plans for industrial chains, continued to optimize platforms at industrial parks and zones, strengthened industrial support, expanded industrial clusters, constantly enhanced industrial competitive advantages, and comprehensively promoted 'shareholder-type' services, effectively advancing economic and social development in various fields.

Source: en.changsha.gov.cn