China’s Consumption Geography: A County-level Estimation of Daily Consumption Using Big Data

Abstract Residents’ daily consumption (RDC) levels provide an important indicator of regional development. However, existing research has largely examined consumption patterns either at coarse spatial scales or through localized case studies owing to data constraints, limiting our understanding of fine-grained spatial disparities in consumption. Using Baidu Population Profiling data, this study systematically examines the geography of RDC levels across county-level units in China and explores the socioeconomic factors underlying regional variation in consumption levels. We find that RDC levels exhibit pronounced east–west spatial disparities, with markedly higher RDC in coastal urban agglomerations. Regional RDC levels are closely associated with administrative levels and urbanization rate. A significant relationship can also be observed between urbanization and the upgrading of consumption structures. Both consumption market and consumption amenity play important roles in raising regional consumption levels. Improvements in consumption market primarily contribute to consumption upgrading by reducing the proportion of low-level consumption populations, whereas better consumption amenity is more strongly associated with an expansion of the high-level consumption population.