As China's national economy surpassed the 140 trillion yuan threshold, multiple regions achieved new milestones in economic scale. The number of cities with a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) exceeding 1 trillion yuan increased from 27 in 2024 to 29 in 2025, with Wenzhou and Dalian joining the ranks. Beijing entered the "5 trillion yuan club," while Shenzhen led the four first-tier cities with a growth rate of 5.5%, targeting a GDP exceeding 5 trillion yuan during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
Cities with trillion-yuan GDP are typically supported by substantial industrial scale and well-developed industrial systems. At a more granular level, this indicates the presence of several "hundred-billion districts" or even "trillion-yillion districts," providing continuous economic momentum. Last year, Shenzhen's Nanshan District achieved a GDP of 1.01 trillion yuan, becoming the nation's first prefecture-level district to reach the trillion-yuan GDP milestone. Futian and Longgang districts both entered the "600-billion-yuan district" tier. Combined, these three districts account for nearly 60% of Shenzhen's total GDP, exemplifying intensive, efficient, and connotative urban development.
In terms of growth rate, six districts—Nanshan, Futian, Longhua, Guangming, Pingshan, and Shenshan—outpaced the city's average, while Longgang and Bao'an have not yet released their data. Pingshan (10.5%) and Shenshan (10.3%) achieved robust double-digit growth, focusing on optimizing and upgrading their industrial structures towards specific high-value-added sectors like vehicles and pharmaceuticals.
Nanshan's GDP surpassed the trillion-yuan mark, while Futian and Longgang both exceeded 600 billion yuan. A central urban work conference emphasized shifting urban development towards greater intensification and efficiency. As the smallest first-tier city by land area, Shenzhen continues to explore intensive and efficient connotative development in its core urban districts.
At the end of January, Nanshan District officially announced its 2025 GDP reached 1010.238 billion yuan, making it the nation's third "trillion-yuan district" after Shanghai's Pudong New Area and Beijing's Haidian District, and notably the first at the prefecture-level city district level. Covering approximately 185 square kilometers—less than one-tenth of Shenzhen's total area—Nanshan contributes over one-quarter of the city's economic output. Comparatively, Nanshan's area is less than one-sixth that of Pudong and half that of Haidian, yet its GDP per square kilometer in 2025 was remarkably high at 5.4 billion yuan, with a per capita GDP exceeding 540,000 yuan.
Futian District, with the second-highest GDP in Shenzhen, covers only 78.66 square kilometers. Last year, its GDP broke through the 640 billion yuan barrier, achieving a GDP per square kilometer of 8.162 billion yuan, which is 4.2 times the city's average. Globally, Singapore, renowned for its intensive and compact development across 735.7 square kilometers, recorded a 2024 GDP of approximately S$731.436 billion (about 4 trillion yuan), with a GDP per square kilometer around 543 million yuan. Hong Kong, covering about 1,114.6 square kilometers, had a 2024 GDP of approximately HK$3,176.9 billion (about 2.9 trillion yuan), translating to a GDP per square kilometer of less than 3 billion yuan. Clearly, the GDP per square kilometer in Futian and Nanshan significantly surpasses that of many global core cities and districts, reaching world-class levels.
From a micro perspective, Nanshan District is home to one-third of Shenzhen's listed companies. Currently, it hosts over 200 various listed enterprises, the highest density nationwide, averaging more than one listed company per square kilometer. Their total market capitalization once exceeded 6.5 trillion yuan in 2025. Last year, Shenzhen became China's leading city for "Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and New" (SRDN) enterprises, with Nanshan having the highest number in the city. It has cultivated 36 national-level manufacturing champions and 394 national-level "Little Giant" SRDN enterprises. From early leaders like Tencent, ZTE, and DJI to recent entrants like Zhongqing, Tuozhu, and Yuejiang, Nanshan's high-density "ecological rainforest" has nurtured successive generations of industry leaders. For instance, Tuozhu Technology became the global leader in the consumer 3D printing market within just five years, reducing prices from the ten-thousand-yuan range to around 3,000 yuan. Zhongqing recently initiated the first Global Humanoid Robot Free Combat League, aiming to break down technological and cultural barriers and promote Chinese innovation on the world stage.
Futian District is characterized by a high concentration of modern service industries, particularly finance, and headquarters enterprises. In 2025, Futian's tertiary industry value-added reached 578.283 billion yuan, growing 8.8%, of which modern services accounted for 475.498 billion yuan (a 10.7% increase), representing 82.2% of the tertiary sector. The value-added from headquarters enterprises surged to 332.901 billion yuan, growing 9% and accounting for 51.9% of the district's GDP. The district newly recognized 21 municipal-level headquarters enterprises, bringing its total to about one-third of the city's count. Specifically in finance, Futian's financial sector value-added increased 16.5% year-on-year, accelerating by 9.7 percentage points from 2024, and accounted for nearly half of Shenzhen's total financial sector value-added, maintaining its top position in the city for years. Over the past year, the district saw the establishment of several innovative financial projects, including the nation's first batch of joint-stock bank financial asset investment companies, the country's first AIC mother fund, Guangdong's first Spanish foreign bank, and the city's AI terminal industry private equity fund. The total number of licensed financial institutions exceeded 300 for the first time, accounting for nearly 60% of the city's total; wealth management scale surpassed 18 trillion yuan, representing approximately 60% of the city's total.
Longgang District joined Futian in entering the "600-billion-yuan district" phase. While the Longgang District Bureau of Statistics has not yet released detailed data, according to messages from the seventh session of the seventh Longgang District People's Congress, the district's GDP is expected to surpass 600 billion yuan in 2025. Its industrial investment ranked first in the city, while the ratio of R&D expenditure to GDP and PCT international patent applications led the city. Newly registered business entities reached 131,700, including 78,100 enterprises—the highest in Shenzhen.
Covering approximately 388 square kilometers, Longgang is a major district in terms of population and industry. Over recent decades, it experienced rapid phases of urban construction and industrial layout but now faces challenges like slowing population growth and tightening land resources. In response, Longgang is focusing resources on high-quality industries, pursuing improvements in total factor productivity. In 2025, Longgang supplied over 43 hectares of industrial land, ranking first in the city, ensuring precise matching between land supply and investment projects to provide quality space for advanced manufacturing. The Longgang District government work report clarified that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, it will continue optimizing factor supply, comprehensively stimulating market vitality and social creativity, and solidifying the industrial foundation for high-quality development.
Regarding 2025 GDP growth rates, six districts—Nanshan, Futian, Longhua, Guangming, Pingshan, and Shenshan—outperformed the city average, while Longgang and Bao'an have not published data. Pingshan (10.5%) and Shenshan (10.3%) achieved impressive double-digit growth. Both are primarily oriented towards industrial manufacturing, with their secondary industry value-added growing 14.2% and 14% respectively last year, and value-added of industries above designated size increasing 15.9% and 26% respectively.
Last year, Shenzhen's strategic emerging industries achieved a value-added of 1.67 trillion yuan, accounting for 43.0% of GDP. The city aims to increase this proportion to 45% during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period. This indicates that the "Number One Industrial City" is seeking a shift in growth drivers, moving from traditional factor-driven growth to innovation-driven growth, optimizing and upgrading its industrial structure towards higher-end and more sustainable directions.
This trend is particularly evident in the younger districts of Pingshan and Shenshan. Instead of scattered investments, Pingshan District highly focuses on "vehicles, pharmaceuticals, chips, and intelligence," while Shenshan's mission is to accelerate the construction of the core bearing area for Shenzhen's new generation of world-class automotive city, building a "one core, three supplements" industrial system.
In 2025, Pingshan District vigorously developed its "6+3" industrial clusters, represented by intelligent connected vehicles, semiconductors and integrated circuits, biomedicine, and artificial intelligence. The output value of strategic emerging industries accounted for a high 88% of the total output value of industries above designated size.
In the new energy vehicle sector, BYD became the global sales champion for pure electric vehicles. Concurrently, the World Automotive Standards Innovation Conference was permanently stationed in Pingshan, the world's largest automotive millimeter-wave radar production base commenced operations, and the automotive parts manufacturing equipment industrial cluster was recognized as a national-level characteristic cluster for small and medium-sized enterprises.
In biomedicine, Pingshan gathered over 1,300 enterprises, forming a complete industrial chain from R&D to production. Purui Jin Biotech signed a $16.4 billion cooperation agreement with a global cell therapy giant, setting a new record for outbound licensing transaction value in China's CAR-T field.
As Shenzhen's hub for silicon-based semiconductors, Pingshan accounts for over 50% of the city's chip manufacturing capacity. Annual output value grew 23% in 2025, with more than 30 industrial chain enterprises establishing presence, aiding Shenzhen's goal to become China's "third pole" in the integrated circuit industry.
The rise of the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone is also strongly driven by anchor firm BYD, with mass production of several mid-to-high-end models like the Denza Z9GT, Song Plus, and Yangwang U9 located there. In 2025, Shenshan completed and put into operation six BYD projects, achieving production start dates for Phase II East plot on May 30, Phase III Plot 1 on August 15, and Phase IV on May 20. It also completed and operationalized a batch of upstream and downstream projects in the new energy vehicle产业链, such as Jingxizhixing, Yanfeng International, and Faurecia, forming a complete industrial system covering core components from batteries, motors, and electronic controls to vehicle manufacturing and export.
Regarding the three supplementary sectors—new energy storage, high-performance materials, and intelligent manufacturing equipment—the master plan for the Shenshan High-End Electronic Chemicals Industrial Park was approved in September last year. It is the first and only high-end electronic chemicals industrial park in Shenzhen and South China. The first phase covers approximately 114 hectares with a total investment of about 10.5 billion yuan. In November, four industrial projects (Gaofa, Huatepeng, Ruihuatai, Bochun) and five public auxiliary projects simultaneously commenced construction and entered the park, with a total expected investment of 3.207 billion yuan.
Shenzhen places high expectations on this "enclave." According to the 2026 Shenzhen Municipal Government Work Report, deeply implementing the regional coordinated development strategy is a key path for Shenzhen to enhance its development capacity. Shenzhen will orderly develop a "headquarters-enclave" economy, explore inter-regional industrial collaboration and benefit-sharing mechanisms. This year, the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone is expected to achieve GDP growth of over 15% and growth in value-added of industries above designated size of over 20%.