Ningbo's Yinzhou district ranked fourth on the China top 100 districts list after a comprehensive evaluation of the district's economic and social development, urbanization quality, green development and government services, a recent report said.

The report was co-published by a number of different institutions, including the Small and Medium Cities Development Strategy Research Institute.

Yinzhou's high ranking is largely due to the district's drive to strengthen innovation and facilitate industrial transformation and upgrading.

It topped the list in terms of technical innovation, up from third place last year. Official data shows that the district's expenditure on the research and development of industrial enterprises above designated size totaled 1.7 billion yuan ($ 253.7 million) in H1, up 21 percent year-on-year.

Over the same period, the district's petrochemical, smart home appliances, biomedicine, energy conservation and environmental protection sectors posted growth of 20.2 percent, 20.9 percent, 10.9 percent and 12.6 percent in added value.

Meanwhile, Cixi, a county-level city in Ningbo, placed sixth among the top 100 counties in the nation.

In 2018, Cixi's gross domestic product (GDP) was 173.7 billion yuan, representing a yearly uptick of 9.8 percent. The figure stood at roughly 84 billion yuan in H1 this year.

As of the end of June, expenditure on the research and development of industrial enterprises above designated size in the county rose 17.2 percent to 1.887 billion yuan, accounting for 2.6 percent of the county's total revenue.

The economic aggregate of 2,809 small and medium-sized cities on the Chinese mainland reached 76.43 trillion yuan, accounting for 84.89 percent of the national figure, the report said.