703 million. (h/t Shanghaiist) Think about that for just a minute. That's about 2.5 times the population of the United States.

More than three years ago (gosh, have we really been here that long??!!) I did a post on how China had hit 410 million cell phone users. In that post, I stated the following:

I love this sort of hard number because to me it is a very accurate way to measure China's growth and increasing wealth, perhaps even more so than a more standard measure like per capita income, which can be easily manipulated and whose impact is heavily dependent on living costs.

The way I see, it, if someone can afford a mobile phone, they are a legitimate potential buyer of Western products and a legitimate potential customer for Western retailers.

The comments to that post (and some of our other posts) questioned the validity of the number. I recall someone saying that the number reflected the fact that many users had two phones. One for business and a "black phone" for the mistress. Another comment was along the lines of how many people in China, particularly rural areas, had a phone because it was absolutely necessary for their micro business and so having a phone does not one for one translate into someone being in the middle class.

I agree with all the criticisms of linking China's cell phone numbers to numbers of Chinese middle class, but I persist in believing there is a correlation. And if there is a correlation, then the numbers of China' middle class have risen considerably since 2006.

What do you think?