People's livelihood index research team, written by Xu Zhaoyuan, Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC)

Report No 154, 2014 (4653)

Abstract:

A questionnaire given to 8,000 households of eight Chinese provinces and cities found that most are basically satisfied with current living conditions, with 45.4 percent saying they're generally content with their lives, 8.7 percent very satisfied, 33.6 percent with few complaints, and 11.5 percent dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. The researchers found that income and housing security are the greatest concerns, while food safety and children's education get the most complaints. In addition, high medical costs and low pensions are areas of great concern. They also found that people with low levels of education or who face major medical expenditures are most likely to be dissatisfied. The survey reflects the fact that there are still many aspects of people's livelihood to be addressed, and income distribution needs improvement, along with food safety, and education equity, in addition to bringing down education costs and improving basic medical insurance for families with financial difficulties.