Beijing's latest economic census underscores a city increasingly anchored by high-tech industries and a towering tertiary sector, with corporate assets surging and regional growth evening out, according to data from the municipal statistics bureau.

The fifth national economic census, released Thursday, pegs Beijing's GDP at 4.74 trillion yuan ($653.6 billion) in 2023, lifting per capita output from 160,000 yuan to 217,000 yuan since the fourth census in 2018. Labor productivity rose to 419,000 yuan per worker, 1.4 times the 2018 level. Corporate assets jumped to 56.9 trillion yuan, a 4.9% annual gain, while revenues increased 7 trillion yuan, up 6.7% yearly.

By late 2023, the census counted 1.18 million secondary and tertiary legal entities, up 19.3% from 2018. The secondary sector totaled 79,000 firms (6.7%), while the tertiary sector totaled 1.1 million (93.3%). Top industries included wholesale and retail with 293,000 firms (24.9%), leasing and business services at 214,000 (18.1%), and scientific research and technological services at 177,000 (15.0%).

Secondary industries held 11.46 trillion yuan in assets (4.3%), while tertiary industries dominated with 257.35 trillion yuan (95.7%). Revenue splits show secondary industries at 4.93 trillion yuan (19.5%) and tertiary at 20.39 trillion yuan (80.5%).

Additionally, the value added by the tertiary sector reached 85.2% of the city's GDP in 2023, up 1.1 percentage points from 2018.

District-wise, Chaoyang (17.9%), Haidian (12.2%), and Tongzhou (8.2%) led in legal entity counts; Haidian, Chaoyang, and Xicheng topped legal entity revenues at 19.5%, 19.4%, and 12.6%, respectively. The six downtown districts boosted revenues 31.1% despite fewer entities, while Tongzhou and suburban areas - Fangshan, Shunyi, Changping, Daxing, and the Economic-Technological Development Area - added 152,000 firms over the five-year period, fueled by new energy vehicles, integrated circuits, biotech, and smart manufacturing.

High-tech manufacturing firms above designated size rose 31.5% to 1,051 from 2018 to 2023, making up 35.4% of all manufacturers above designated size, with their value added at 4.3% of the city's GDP, up 0.8 percentage point from 2018. High-tech service firms above designated size totaled 8,207, or 36.8% of all service entities above designated size, contributing 25.3% to GDP, up 4.6 percentage points from 2018.