China has 12.6 million migrant children

More than 12 million school-age children of migrant workers live with their parents who work outside their hometowns, Beijing News reported.

According to a document released by the Ministry of Education, 12.6 million children within the compulsory education age moved with their parents who work away from their rural homes in 2011, 938,000 more than in 2010.

Among them, 9.3 million were primary school-age children, and 3.3 million were in middle school, the national education career development statistics report of 2011 showed.

Children who were left behind by migrant workers totaled 22 million in 2011, 712,000 less than 2010, the report also showed.