Guangzhou's quality of life index ranks first, do you believe it? The Guangzhou Qianqian community was something I couldn't believe at all about Guangzhou being ranked first a few questions ago. For example, housing price issues, cost of living issues, medical care issues, air quality issues, food safety issues, transportation issues, wage issues, etc. On these issues, I feel that Guangzhou simply cannot rank first. As is well known, a large part of Guangzhou's GDP is driven by housing prices. People from Guangdong have a tradition: no house, no marriage, which then affects their lives. The average housing price in Guangzhou is around 13,000 yuan and above, with an average monthly income of 2000 yuan, even if one doesn't eat or drink, they would still spend most of their life as a mortgage slave. Moreover, how many of the houses in Guangzhou are bought by local residents? Food safety issues keep emerging, such as gutter oil, fake eggs, various problems gradually surfacing - is this what a city ranked first should look like? Guangzhou introduced the BRT, which is worth praising. The BRT effectively solved the citizens' travel problems. The minimum wage introduced by Guangzhou effectively guaranteed the lives of its citizens, but this is not just about introducing policies; supervision is key. Good supervision can completely enhance Guangzhou's law enforcement image. Some issues remain challenges for Guangzhou to be ranked first. Guangzhou shouldn't be ranked first, but it won't be ranked last either.
Is Guangzhou's quality of life index ranked first nationwide?
The day before yesterday, the Institute of Economics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Capital University of Economics and Business jointly released the first "Report on China Urban Quality of Life Index." The survey shows that due to factors such as "fast pace of life" and "high environmental pressure," among 30 provincial capital cities, Beijing ranked eighth, far behind super-large cities like Guangzhou and Shanghai, and also behind cities like Hohhot and Shijiazhuang.
Beijing has the fastest pace of life nationwide.
According to the relevant person in charge of the survey team, the "quality of life index" is derived from a series of weighted objective and subjective indicators. Subjective indices include satisfaction with income, cost of living, medical insurance, living environment, pace of life, and convenience of life; objective indices include per capita wealth, inflation rate, green space area, Engel's coefficient, etc.
From the survey results, among the 30 provincial capital cities, there are 15 cities with a quality of life index score above 55 points, exceeding the average score of 54.49. The top three cities are Guangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, with Beijing ranking eighth. Looking at regions, the objective index of quality of life in eastern cities is higher than in western cities, but the subjective satisfaction is lower than in western cities, which is considered one of the reasons for Beijing's relatively low comprehensive score. Taking Yinchuan and Beijing as examples, Yinchuan's overall quality of life index ranking is high (4th place), related to its relaxed pace of life (48.68 points, ranked first); while Beijing's overall quality of life index ranking is low, closely related to its ultra-fast pace of life (38.03 points, ranked last).
Subjective feelings account for 40% weight.
For the same super-large cities, why are Guangzhou and Shanghai ranked higher, but Beijing so much lower? The report writers frankly stated that Beijing's environmental quality lags significantly behind.
Respondents' subjective feelings account for 40% of the weight, greatly influencing the overall result. For instance, after the development of western China, residents' quality of life improved rapidly, resulting in higher resident satisfaction. In terms of "cost of living satisfaction," Shanghai and Beijing ranked 20th and 25th respectively, with subjective indices ranking 28th and 29th, indicating higher costs of living.
Citizen Voices
● Citizen Miss Zheng: More efforts needed in people's livelihood
"Can Guangzhou rank first? Unbelievable." Civil servant Miss Zheng was very surprised when she heard about this, but after looking at the reference data, indicators, and comparing Beijing and Shanghai, she felt that ranking first wasn't surprising.
Miss Zheng analyzed that in terms of pace of life, although Guangzhou has traffic jams, compared to Beijing and Shanghai, it's just a drop in the bucket. In terms of urban environment, after the Asian Games, the urban environment has greatly improved.
Miss Zheng suggested that Guangzhou should work harder on people's livelihoods, be more transparent in administrative governance according to law, and give citizens a sense of belonging.
● Citizen Miss Qiu: I'm surprised Guangzhou ranked first
"It's not that I don't feel happy, but we graduates all have the same feeling." Citizen Miss Qiu expressed that she didn't know much about cities like Shanghai and Beijing, but they should be similar to Guangzhou. "Compared to big cities, I prefer small cities. I'm surprised Guangzhou ranked first."
"Quality of life should not be compared by skyscrapers and cars, but by where it feels more comfortable to live." She indicated that she and her classmates have been graduated for over four years. Those who stayed in Guangzhou, compared to those who returned home, had incomparable quality of life. "Comparing 30 provincial capital cities, it's not about who is better, there is no best, only worse."
Top Ten Quality of Life Index Rankings
Guangzhou 64.07
Shanghai 60.05
Nanjing 59.49
Yinchuan 58.23
Hohhot 57.61
Hefei 56.42
Shijiazhuang 56.27
Beijing 56.23
Changchun 56.01
Fuzhou 56.00
Bottom Five Rankings
Harbin 51.54
Wuhan 51.36
Taiyuan 50.67
Xining 50.11
Urumqi 49.59
Top Ten Resident Living Standards Rankings
Guangzhou 69.06
Shanghai 66.79
Fuzhou 59.01
Beijing 58.67
Hangzhou 57.16
Nanning 55.58
Nanjing 55.45
Nanchang 54.97
Yinchuan 54.42
Hefei 54.27
Bottom Five Rankings
Lanzhou 47.63
Xi'an 46.65
Chongqing 46.51
Urumqi 45.44
Xining 45.31
Rankings for Improvement in Residents' Living Standards in Provincial Capitals
Hohhot 69.81
Yinchuan 67.94
Changchun 67.66
Shenyang 65.92
Nanjing 63.74
Guangzhou 62.94
Shanghai 61.81
Beijing 61.14