GEB 1305

China and the World

Tutorial 2

The Development of Modern China:

Rural-Urban Inequali=es
Rural-Urban Inequalities

• Despite drama+c growth in rural incomes and a fall in the incidence of

absolute poverty in China since the 1970s, there appears to have been an

even more drama+c growth in inequali+es between rural and urban areas

• China’s urban to rural income ra+o increased steadily from 1.8:1 in 1985 to

3.22:1 in 2010 (NBS, 2011)

Rural-Urban Inequalities
• Rural–urban income gap produces significant differentials in people’s standards of living.

• Compared to households in which all members are registered as rural residents, for example, there
is a far lower probability that any household in which someone has an urban hukou will be
absolutely poor.

• Rural people also fall behind on the commonly used indicators of consumption and well-being.

• Rural households had a smaller proportion of a lower net income left over to spend on other
essentials such as housing, clothing, health and education, much less to invest in staging the life-
cycle rituals, gift-giving and banqueting activities that help to consolidate kinship bonds, forge
business deals and facilitate upward social mobility.
Rural-Urban Inequalities
• In comparison to rural residents, urban people spent four times more on education, culture
and recreational services in 2010.

• This not only perpetuated inequalities in income-earning potential, but also produced new
sources of inequality.

• For example, 71.16 out of 100 households in urban areas and only 10.37 out of 100 households
in rural areas owned a computer.

• Differentials in computer ownership exacerbate rural–urban differences in access to

information, and opportunities to network socially and influence public opinion and policy.
Rural-Urban Inequalities
The Distribu+on and Affordability of Health Care

• In 2010, the number of hospital beds per thousand people was 5.33 in urban areas and 2.44 in rural
areas

• Urban people spent 2.6 +mes more than rural people on health care and medical expenses.

• As rural medical insurance schemes are under-resourced, rural residents pay high out-of-pocket
expenses for medical care.

• In 2008, the Na+onal Household Health Survey found that the early self-discharge rate among chronically
ill pa+ents was 11.5 percent in urban areas and 27.5 percent in rural areas.

• As poor health reduces income-genera+ng capacity, the rural–urban gap in health care reproduces other
rural–urban material inequali+es.
References

• Jacka, T., Kipnis, A. B. & Sargeson, S. (2014) “Regional, Rural-Urban and

Within-community Inequali+es” in Contemporary China: Society and

Social Change. Cambridge University Press.