China is the world’s largest consumer of bulk materials, and the accumulation of material stocks and flows plays a critical role in shaping its socioeconomic metabolism and environmental sustainability. Detailed and up-to-date provincial-level data on material stocks and flows are therefore essential for understanding resource use and supporting regional sustainability transitions. This study presents the most recent update of the Provincial Material Stocks and Flows Database (PMSFD), extending our previous dataset for 1978–2018 to cover the years 1978–2023. The PMSFD provides consistent time-series data for 31 provinces and 13 bulk material categories across five key end-use sectors, compiled using a bottom-up material flow analysis framework that integrates official statistics and standardized estimation methods. Compared with the earlier version, the updated PMSFD captures the recent slowdown in material accumulation and reveals the regional heterogeneity. The data can be applied to studies on material metabolism, resource efficiency, circular economy strategies, and embodied carbon emissions accounting, as well as to inform regional and national sustainability policymaking in China.
Huang et al. (Fri,) studied this question.