Evaluation of China’s provincial digital economy development level and its coupling coordination relationship

Based on the Office for National Statistics’ delineation of the scope of the digital economy industry, this paper selects indicators from five industrial dimensions: digital product manufacturing, digital product service, digital technology application, digital factor drive and digital efficiency improvement, and constructs an evaluation system to measure the development level of China’s digital economy at the provincial level. It is found that there is a wide gap in the development of China’s provincial digital economy, with the eastern coastal provinces and cities having a high level of digital economy development. The coupling and coordination model was then applied to examine the interrelationships between the five industrial dimensions of the digital economy, and it was found that most of the coupling and coordination relationships of the five industrial dimensions are at the stage of medium-high coupling and low coupling and coordination, and each province and city has different coupling and coordination characteristics. The numerical evaluation results provide an intuitive understanding of the differences and deficiencies in the development of the digital economy in different regions, and serve as a reference for the medium and long-term digital economy development planning of provinces and municipalities as well as the whole country. In the future, the state should invest more in the digital economy in the central and western regions, and each province should cultivate and develop the digital economy in accordance with its own local conditions.