Yiwu is home to the world's largest small commodities wholesale market. [Photo provided to ezhejiang.gov.cn]

The number of market entities in East China's Zhejiang province has surpassed 10 million, making it the fifth province in the country to achieve the milestone.

Over the past five years, the annual average growth rate of market entities in the province has been over 8 percent, with an increase of 2.76 million entities, a growth of 38 percent compared to the end of 2019. Since 2019, Zhejiang has seen an average net increase of market entities per year: 700,200 entities in 2019, 789,900 entities in 2020, 652,300 entities in 2021, 748,500 entities 2022, and 566,800 entities in 2023 (as of Aug 10).

This year, the province has registered 1.17 million new market entities, a year-on-year increase of 22.42 percent. Among them, 348,600 are newly-registered enterprises, a growth of 22.71 percent compared to the same period last year, and 817,300 are newly-registered individual businesses, a growth of 22.33 percent.

In Zhejiang, there are 1,520 market entities per ten thousand people, with over 6,400 new business owners born on average each day. Among every 7 individuals, one is a business owner, and there is one enterprise for every 19 individuals.

Out of the 10 million market entities in the province, 9.67 million are privately-operated, accounting for 96.69 percent, including 3.22 million private enterprises, which make up 92.05 percent of the total number of enterprises.

The 2022 list of China's top 500 private enterprises released by the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce included 107 companies from Zhejiang, accounting for 21.4 percent of the total.

The average household revenue of individual businesses in the province is 168,200 yuan ($23,197.76), a 4.34 percent increase from the first quarter, and the average profit per household is 33,800 yuan. The per capita operating income (output) is 86,300 yuan, a 14.61-percent increase from the first quarter. On average, each household employs 2.75 people, contributing to a total employment of about 13 million people, approximately 30 percent of the province's total employment population.