The result of "The Report on Quality of Life of Chinese Residents 2004" issued on Dec. 13 on Social Blue Book 2005 implied that nearly 80 percent of Chinese residents feel happy so far, and especially the rural residents get more sense of happiness than the urban residents do.

The data comes from the survey conducted in October 2004 on seven large and medium sized cities, seven small sized towns and eight rural areas across the countries. The result shows the sense of happiness is closely connected with people's degree of satisfaction on life. Money does not necessarily mean happiness. Fortune is only one factor that brings and affects people's sense of happiness.

Currently, the major factors affecting urban residents' feeling of happiness in the order of influence are: price fluctuation bearing capability, degree of satisfaction on individual profession, correctness evaluation on China's general development direction and degree of satisfaction on individual spare time activities. However, such factors as degree of satisfaction on individual profession, price fluctuation bearing capability, degree of satisfaction on individual spare time activities, degree of satisfaction on interpersonal relationship as well as degree of satisfaction on individual economic status have the greater influence on the sense of satisfaction among rural population.

The survey shows more than half of the total residents in China feel their life peace and satisfactory, which has become the mainstream of people's feeling towards life, and the percentage has increased by 6 percent from that in 2003. However, the percentage of people who felt bored and worried or suffered from anxiety and high nerve was also on the rise slightly. But the percentage of those who stuck to the altitude of nonchalance or neutrality has dropped a little bit.

Chinese residents entertain great expectations on their individual standard of living in the coming five years, with 72.5 percent of residents predicting their life better and better or relatively better off. The analysis shows that the more satisfactory and happier residents feel about their current life, the more optimistic they will be toward their future life.

The dissatisfaction towards the individual economy, profession as well as the social security system has become a major factor that affects people's degree of satisfaction on daily life. People's demand on social security system is becoming more and more eye-catching and urgent, while the small coverage of social security system has become a serious problem. Among the social problems arousing local residents' attention, the issue of employment has been at the top of the list of people's most concerned social issues for four consecutive years.

(People’s Daily December 15, 2004)