China only just missed the income cutoff to become a high-income country this year. In July every year, the World Bank sorts countries into income groups based on their per capita gross national income (GNI) in the previous year. In this year’s update, China was very close to entering the high-income group: its GNI per person was $14,230; just short of the World Bank’s high-income threshold of $14,375. The chart puts this in perspective. The bars show GNI per person for countries with at least 25 million people, ordered from poorest to richest. Beyond income, China is already comparable to high-income countries in many dimensions. Its spending on research and development as a share of GDP, for example, is higher than in many European countries. It’s also a global leader in several technology fields, including clean energy and artificial intelligence. But in other ways, China is closer to middle-income countries. Its productivity, measured by GDP per hour worked, for example, remains much lower than in high-income countries. (written by @EOrtizOspina)