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People's Life |
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 In 2004, the annual per-capita net income of rural households was 2,936 yuan. It represented the highest growth since 1997 with a real increase of 6.8 percent after allowing for price factors. The per-capita disposable income of urban households was 9,422 yuan, a real increase of 7.7 percent. The Engel coefficient (which refers to the proportion of expenditure on food to the total consumption expenditure of households) was 47.2 percent for r  ural households and 37.7 percent for urban households.The population in absolute poverty in rural areas (calculated on the basis of annual per-capita net income of below 668 yuan)  was 26.1 million at the end of 2004, a decline of 2.9 million from the end of the previous year. The low-income population in rural areas (based on the standard of annual per-capita net income between 669 and 924 yuan) was 49.77 million, a decline of 6.4 million.Shrinking Family Size Statistics show that China now has 350 million households, averaging 3.2 people each in urban areas and 4.3 people in rural areas. Currently, a Chinese family is generally composed of a husband, wife and one to two children. Census findings show that a Chinese family had 4.43 people on average in 1982, a number falling to 3.97 in 1990 and 3.6 at present. This indicates the size of Chinese families has shrunk over the past 20-odd years. A contributing factor is that young people tend to find employment in wider geographical areas and are more inclined to follow different lifestyles. Also, an increasing number of young people are now better off financially and able to leave their parents to establish their own home and profession. Therefore, families with several generations living under one roof are becoming rare in China. Marriage Registration The newly revised Marriage Registration Regulations, put into force on October 1, 2003, further simplified the registration procedures. In 2004, there were 8.341 million couples nationwide, who had their marriage registered, 227,000 couples more than in 2003. Of them, 8.282 million registered marriages were between mainlanders and 58,000 were between a Chinese mainlander and a foreigner, an overseas Chinese or a resident from Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan. There were 1.613 million couples who had their divorce registered, 282,000 couples more than in 2003, an increase of 21.2 percent. Of them, 995,000 couples went through the procedures at civil affairs departments, an increase of 304,000 couples, or 44 percent, over 2003. Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs show that the divorce rate in China increased from 0.07 percent in 1980 to 0.21 percent in 2003. |
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