Research Background and Conceptual Definition of Chinese Household Finance

Over the past half century, rapid technological progress and the globalization of social finance have created tremendous economic prosperity for China while also deeply embedding Chinese households in modern financial systems, becoming an important factor affecting the productivity and quality of economic development of the entire nation. Currently, the total wealth of Chinese households is experiencing explosive growth. According to the Global Wealth Report 2022, the size of Chinese household wealth has increased to $85 trillion (about RMB 600 trillion). China’s per capita wealth has reached $76,639 (about RMB 540,000), more than 10 times what it was 21 years ago. Data from the China Wealth Report 2022 also confirms that in 2021, the total amount of household wealth reached RMB 68.7 trillion, ranking second in the world, next only to the United States; household assets averaged RMB 1.34 million. On a structural level, physical assets (primarily real estate) account for 69.3% of total wealth, while financial assets account for 30.7%; financial assets of household residents are still concentrated in low-risk financial assets such as cash, demand deposits, and time deposits, accounting for about 53%, while equity assets and public funds account for about 19%.