China country note: PISA 2015 high performers

With over 1.36 billion people, the People’s Republic of China is the world’s most populous country and has the world’s largest education system. The gradual improvement of market mechanisms and the move towards more open policies have led to rapid growth in the Chinese economy. China’s GDP grew by over 10% per year in the decade between 2000 and 2009, on average, and was as high as 6.9% in 2015 (World Bank). With a per capita GDP of USD 7 925, China is an upper middle-income country, as defined by the World Bank. China’s “first-evel” entities of governance include provinces and autonomous regions, municipalities, and special administrative regions (namely, Hong Kong and Macao). Four of these entities, namely Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Guangdong, participated in PISA 2015; their combined results are reported as “B‐S‐J‐G (China)”. Because these regions are sampled as one entity, results are not reported separately by province or municipality. The following table displays relevant information about these regions (United Nations Development Program 2013 and the China National Bureau of Statistics).