(Yicai Global) April 14 -- People in Shanghai and Beijing have the highest salaries in China on average, with a per capita annual income of more than USD10,000, according to Yicai Global research.

Shanghai residents earn on average CNY72,232 (USD11,000) a year, followed by Beijing with CNY69,434 (USD10,617). Shenzhen and Guangzhou are in third and fourth place with CNY64,874 (USD9,919) and CNY63,289 respectively.

These four first-tier cities all have higher income levels as they have better developed financial and internet sectors, are home to many leading enterprises and have a large middle class, Peng Peng, executive president of the Guangdong Institutional Reform Research Association, told Yicai Global. High-tech and emerging industries are also well developed in these municipalities, boosting earning power.

Four out of the top seven cities, namely Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou and Nanjing, are all in the Yangtze River Delta region, which comprises Shanghai and parts of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and is one of China’s most economically developed and densely populated areas.

The Pearl River Delta region in southern China, by contrast, only has two cities among the top ten, namely Shenzhen and Guangzhou. Much of the labor in the economic powerhouse of Guangdong province is made up of migrants from other provinces and their income is lower than the locals, Peng said.

The Yangtze River Delta, on the other hand, has more state-owned enterprises, a more developed economy, better statistics and a larger proportion of the workforce is local, he added.

Income levels in the country’s central and western regions are significantly lower than in the eastern coastal areas. Nine of the ten lowest-income cities out of the 40 surveyed are in these areas. Changsha in central Hunan province fared the best, ranking 16th.

Editor: Kim Taylor