One Chinese province makes over a tenth of mainland GDP
Coastal Guangdong, capital Guangzhou, holds about 128.6 million people on roughly 179,800 square kilometres—China's largest provincial GDP and population. In 2024 its CN¥14.16 trillion output was about 10.5 percent of mainland China's economy.
The name joins guǎng, wide, tied to the region since Guang Prefecture was created in AD 226 and ultimately to a Han outpost called Guangxin near modern Wuzhou, with dōng, east. It descends from Guangnan East Circuit, set up by the Song in 971, and the present form dates from the early Ming. Canton, from the Portuguese Cantão, now usually means the capital Guangzhou; Wade–Giles spelled the province Kwangtung.
The Neolithic began in the Pearl River Delta about 7,000 years ago. Baiyue tribes lived here until the Qin pushed south and founded Nanhai, bringing Chinese administration; soldiers, civilians and exiles resettled from the north gradually made the population Han. Tang-era Canton traded silk and porcelain with Persians and Malays for medicines and fragrant woods, until Arabs and Persians raided the port in 758. In 1279 Mongol fleets destroyed the last Southern Song court at the Battle of Yamen.
Portuguese and British merchants traded heavily through Guangzhou from the 16th century, and Macau became the first European settlement in 1557. Pirates of the Guangdong Pirate Confederation plagued the delta around 1800 until Portuguese and Qing forces suppressed them. Opium traffic through Guangzhou sparked the First Opium War, after which Hong Kong went to Britain and Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, now part of Zhanjiang, to France. Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan was born in the province, which became a centre of anti-Manchu activity.
Emigration, eased by Hong Kong's links across the British Empire, means many overseas Chinese communities trace their roots here. In January 2005 it overtook Henan and Shandong as the most populous province. It is also a research powerhouse with 160 institutions of higher education, second only to Jiangsu, and in 2025 Guangzhou and Shenzhen ranked 6th and 18th among world cities for scientific output.
Source: Guangdong
