China sees rapid income, consumption growth in rural areas over past 70 years

Members of a local poverty alleviation team help He Zhengcai carry a refrigerator at Luxi Village of Qingyang Township in Shiqian County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feb. 20, 2019. China has seen rapid income and consumption growth in rural areas over the past 70 years, according to a report from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). In 2018, rural per capita disposable income had increased 40 times from 1949 to stand at 14,617 yuan (about 2,088 U.S. dollars) in real terms after deducting price factors, up 5.5 percent on average annually, the NBS said. The country's urban-rural income gap narrowed remarkably, with the ratio of per capita disposable income for urban residents to that of rural residents hitting 2.69 in 2018, 0.64 lower than 1956. The rural consumption level continued to rise in the last 70 years, as indicated by its expanding size and improving quality. Per capita rural consumption grew by an average annual rate of 5.2 percent to reach 12,124 yuan in real terms in 2018 after deducting price factors, up 32.7 times from 1949, while the Engel coefficient for rural residents dropped 38.5 percentage points from 1954 to reach 30.1 percent. Per capita living space in rural areas reached 47.3 square meters, posing a sharp contrast to 8.1 square meters in 1978, according to the report. Household consumption in rural areas also increased, with the average ownership of cars, computers and cell phones per 100 households reaching 22.3, 26.9 and 257, respectively in 2018.