Beijing residents see improved living standard over 5 years
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 16, 2017
Beijing has made great achievements in improving people’s livelihood in terms of their income, housing, social security and access to public services since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
Monthly income exceeding 50,000 yuan
Over the past five years, residents’ income in both urban and rural areas in Beijing has increased rapidly alongside the city’s fast economic development.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics Beijing Survey Office showed that Beijing residents' per capita disposable income reached 52,530 yuan (roughly US$8,000) in 2016. The per capita urban disposable income was 57,275 yuan, increasing by 57.5 percent over that of 2011; and the per capita rural income was 22,310 yuan, up 62.3 percent from 2011.
The average annual growth rates of urban and rural resident income were 9.5 percent and 10.2 percent respectively. After accounting for price factors, the real annual growth rates were 7.1 percent and 7.7 percent for urban and rural residents’ income respectively.
In the past five years, the residents’ income growth was almost at the same speed as the city’s GDP growth, with the rural residents’ income growing faster than that of the urban residents.
As the residents’ income grew rapidly in Beijing, the per capita consumption expenditure also rose steadily while the consumption structure continuously upgraded.
In 2016, the per capita consumption expenditure in Beijing reached 35,416 yuan. The per capita consumption expenditures for urban and rural residents were 38,256 and 17,329 yuan, growing 7.7 percent and 9.3 percent respectively over that of 2011.
In 2016, the spending on transportation and telecommunication accounted for 13.3 percent of the expenditure, with an average annual growth rate of 11.2 percent, and the expense on health care accounted for 6.9 percent. Spending on personal development in Beijing grew faster than spending on food and other daily items.
Security housing projects account for over 20 percent of property investment
Over the past five years, Beijing has invested 398.65 billion yuan in security housing projects, accounting for 21.2 percent of its 1.9 trillion yuan total investment in real estate development. The construction of a total of 590,000 security apartments have been newly launched since 2012, including 328,000 transformed apartments in shantytowns.
“The increasing investment in the security housing project not only improves the housing condition of the low-income group, but also boosts the upgrading of the structure of the real estate investment and development,” an official from the National Bureau of Statistics Beijing Survey Office said.
Beijing has also issued more than 10 policies to control housing prices. This July, prices of new commercial real estate properties decreased by 0.1 percent from June. Secondhand housing price in July also decreased by 0.8 percent from June.
Refining social security and public services in Beijing
Over the past five years, Beijing has improved the social security system for its residents. Data showed that from 2012 to 2016, the average annual growth rates of the minimum wage level, the urban minimum life guarantee standard, and the minimum unemployed insurance standard were 10.3 percent, 9.9 percent and 9.2 percent respectively.
Meanwhile, Beijing has increased financial investment to improve the conditions of education, health, culture, sports and other public resources.
In 2016, the student-teacher ratio was 16-to-1, an improvement over the 2011 ratio of 17-to-1. The numbers of doctors, registered nurses, and hospital beds for every 1,000 people increased by 36 percent, 52 percent and 18 percent respectively over 2011. The number of museums in 2016 increased by 10 percent from 2011, and the number of sports stadiums more than tripled over the same period.
The city’s environment also saw improvement. The emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide saw 38.5 percent and 34.5 percent reduction from 2011. The average PM2.5 was 73 micrograms per cubic meter, decreasing 18.4 percent from 2013. Over the past five years, the forest coverage and green coverage rates were 42.3 percent and 48.4 percent, increasing by 4.7 percentage points and 2.8 percentage points over 2011.
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