Assessment of the socioeconomic development levels of six economic corridors in the Belt and Road region

Recent years have witnessed rapid and widespread economic growth in regions involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), mainly due to the construction of six economic corridors. This paper aims to quantify the levels of six economic corridors according to the socioeconomic development levels in the BRI regions. Here, a gridded socioeconomic development index was first created, and a dividing line was drawn to reveal the distribution characteristics of socioeconomic development in the BRI regions. A classification method was then applied to identify local development levels. Finally, we created an economic corridor development index (ECDI) to evaluate the progress of six economic corridors. The results reveal spatial heterogeneity within the socioeconomic groups of BRI regions, which can be roughly divided into offshore (or Part A, 50.54%) and inland (or Part B, 49.46%) areas. Although both parts comprise roughly the same area, over 95% of the population is located in offshore regions. The China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor has the highest development index due to a stable political environment and long-running cooperation. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor suffers from the lowest ECDI but with strong development potential. Our methods can provide critical reference and practice for the future evaluation of the level of regional development. The results of this study can offer policymakers some insight into reducing socioeconomic inequality in the BRI regions.