China CHN
Tier 1 · Major AI & Automation Powers
China stands at 28.5 of 100 on the Optional Work Index, the point at which paid work becomes economically optional1.
Supply measures whether machines can do the work; demand measures whether people can afford to stop. The index is their geometric mean, computed by the same method used for every country.
28.5 / 100
0 · pre-automation baseline100 · work optional
40.3
Supply
can machines do the work
20.2
Demand
can people afford to stop
Data coverage high · 5/5 inputs from primary data (supply 3/3, demand 2/2)
Components
Five sub-indices, fixed weights within each side
Supply
Capacity for machines to do the work40.3
AI Capabilityweight 40%
39.0
Humanoid Roboticsweight 31%
71.3
Labor Market Shiftweight 29%
9.0
AI system progress toward human-level and beyond cognitive performance.
Demand
Capacity for people to stop working20.2
Economic Abundanceweight 60%
22.8
Wealth Distributionweight 40%
16.2
Whether the cost of necessities (healthcare, housing, food, transport, education) is falling enough that work is less required.
Data sources for CHN
which series filled each input
ai_frontier— epoch globalai_adoption— wb wbrobot_density— ifr ifrautomation_gap— derived wbunemployment— wb wbproductivity— none missingjob_openings— wb proxycost_healthcare— wb wbcost_food— wb proxycost_housing— wb proxycost_transport— none missingcost_education— wb wbbs_electricity— wb wbbs_water— wb wbbs_sanitation— wb wbbs_ict_affordability— none missingincome_floor— wb wbinequality— wb wblabor_income_share— none missing
Calculated 2026-08-31 23:15:18 UTC · version 3.1.0