Chinese Mandarin - Major causes of poverty in rural areas

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Major causes of poverty in rural areas

www.chinanews.cn 2006-02-08 16:56:14

Chinanews, Feb. 8 - Horizon Research and Horizonkey, a professional
research data provider, jointly released the 2005 survey report on
Chinese residents' life quality index the other day. Results show that
spending on education is the crucial cause giving rise to poverty in
rural families and "lack of knowledge and skills" is one of the causes
leading to low income of rural residents.
The survey indicates that 40% to 50% of poverty-stricken people in
cities, small towns and rural areas said that they are poor because they
find it hard to afford their children's tuition fees. In rural
households, in particular, spending on education is the No. 1 expenditure.
The survey also shows that from October, 2004 to October, 2005, spending
on education accounted for 32.6% of the total income of those rural
households with children of school age. This proportion reached 25.9% and
23.3%, respectively, in cities and small towns.
The No. 2 burden for the needy is medical expense, and the situation is
even more severe in rural regions. About 25% of poor rural residents
attribute their poverty to sick members in their families. From October,
2004 to October, 2005, medial expenses constituted 21% of the total
income of rural households, remarkably higher than the proportions in
cities (7.9%) and small cities (9%). Statistics from the Development
Research Center under the State Council also indicate that in current
China, once a person was seriously sick, he should spend over 7,000 yuan
(US$868) on medial treatment on average. However, the annual net income
of farmers is normally around 2,000 yuan.
Moreover, about 14% of poverty-stricken residents in cities and small
towns said that their poverty is due to the elderly they must support.

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