How to look up National Bureau of Statistics data
To find China's official statistics, the main entry point is the National Bureau of Statistics' National Data platform, organized into monthly, quarterly, annual and census data, with free querying and export. For long time series, use the China Statistical Yearbook; for censuses, see the census data section; for finer local data, see the provincial and municipal statistics bureaus. Below we explain how to get in, what is available, how to export, and what to watch out for when you use it.
The short answer
The National Bureau of Statistics' National Data platform (data.stats.gov.cn) is the main entry point for China's official statistics. It is organized into monthly, quarterly, annual and census data, plus provincial data, with free querying and export. For long historical series, use the China Statistical Yearbook; for population and economic censuses, see the census data section; for finer local data, see the provincial and municipal statistics bureaus. Before you use anything, check the indicator definitions and the statistical scope.
What the National Data platform holds and how to use it
How the data is organized
By time period, the data falls into four categories — monthly, quarterly, annual and census data. There is also provincial data (provincial monthly, quarterly and annual), monthly prices for major cities, monthly data for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and international data. You can query layer by layer by indicator, region and time.
Common indicators you can find
Common ones include GDP (gross domestic product), CPI (consumer price index), total population, total retail sales of consumer goods, grain output, and other macroeconomic and socioeconomic indicators, spanning the economy, population, prices, trade and more.
How to query and export
On the platform, enter by data type, choose your indicator, region and time range, then run the query. Results can be exported as tables, which makes later organization and analysis easier. The platform itself is free, though some features may require registering and signing in first.
Companion data sources
- China Statistical Yearbook: a comprehensive statistical compilation issued annually by the National Bureau of Statistics. It offers long time series and is well suited to historical data and annual summaries; it can be consulted in the annual data section of the National Bureau of Statistics website.
- Census data: the results of dedicated censuses such as the population census and the economic census. The data is more detailed and more comprehensive, but is released on the census cycle; it can be consulted in the census data section of the National Bureau of Statistics website.
- Local statistics bureaus: provincial and municipal statistics bureaus publish more detailed local statistics and local statistical yearbooks, making them an important complement to the national platform for regional research.
Common pitfalls when using official statistics
- Definition changes affect comparability: statistical definitions and indicator scopes can be adjusted from year to year, so confirm comparability before comparing across longer spans of years.
- Administrative boundary changes: regions being merged, split or renamed can break the continuity of region-level data, so watch for this in provincial and municipal analysis.
- Indicator definitions and units: an indicator with the same name may be defined differently or use different units in different tables; read the notes before using it, and standardize units and base periods.
- Census years differ from regular years: the coverage and survey methodology of census years do not fully match those of regular annual data, so understand the differences before mixing them.
Data scattered across sources? Leave it to us
If the statistics you need span multiple sources and take time to pull together, or you are unsure which channel best fits your research, send us your goal and the conditions it must meet. We start with a free data availability assessment, run a real search across authoritative data platforms, and judge matches and gaps against each of your required items. Even when no fully matching dataset is found, the search directions, approximate sources and item-by-item judgments are presented to you honestly for reference.