CASS (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences) issued a report, “Development Report No.4 of China’s cities”, measured that the poor population in China is about 50 millions, the figure showing a rising trend.
The figure is based on the “China Statistical Yearbook” 2010. The yearbook shows that China’s urban population is 621, 86 million, and the per capita disposable income of urban residents is 17, 175 yuan in the end of 2009. In addition, the urban poverty rate is between 7.5% and 8.7%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Civil Affairs and some local governments’ researches.
So, China has about 50 million of poor people, which is twice of the number of people with insured and minimum standard insurance.
For the impact of regional economic disparities, northeast and western regions account for a large proportion of the poor, while the smallest proportion of eastern.
The report notes that the population of urban poor has been rising since the 1990s, because of rising prices, weak social security measures, high house price, severe employment situation and the expanded gap between rich and poor.
Source: People’s Daily
Translated and edited by Ma Xin
Ma Xin is an editor of M4.cn and can be reached at tomaxin@163.com.