Recently, CCID Consulting, the information research group under the Electronic Information Industry Development Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, conducted a comprehensive evaluation on nearly 3,000 county-level cities in China, and issued the list of 2016 Top 100 Best Developed County-Level Economies in China. Liyang ranks the 37th. The top three are Kunshan, Jiangyin and Zhangjiagang.

The evaluation factored in various statistics of economic strength, people's livelihood, economic vitality, etc.