By the end of 2006, there were 300,000 health institutions in China, including 59,000 general hospitals and health centers, 3,006 maternal and child health-care institutions, 1,404 specialized health institutions, 3,587 epidemic disease-prevention centers (stations) and 2,256 health-monitoring institutions. There were 4.525 million health workers in China; including 1.97 million practicing doctors and assistant practicing doctors and 1.386 million registered nurses. General hospitals and health centers in China possessed 3.216 million beds. There were 40,000 rural health care centers, possessing 680,000 beds and employing 857,000 health care workers. In 2006, some 3.489 million people were infected by A- or B-class infectious diseases, with 10,623 reported deaths. The incidence of infectious disease was 266.84 per 100,000, with the death rate standing at 0.81 per 100,000. A total of 1,451 counties/cities conducted experiments on new types of cooperative medical care system in rural areas, which accounted for 50.7 percent of the total, attracting 410 million farmers which represented a participation rate of 80.5 percent.

In 2006, Chinese athletes won 141 world championships on 24 sports events. Eleven athletes and three teams broke 21 world records on 25 occasions. In December 2006, Chinese athletes won 165 gold medals, 88 silver medals and 63 bronze medals in the 15th Asian Games at Doha. Both the number of gold medals and the total number of medals exceeded those received in the 14th Asian Games and China ranked the first in gold medals for seven consecutive times.

XI. Population, Living Conditions and Social Security

At the end of 2006, the total number of Chinese population reached 1.31448 billion, an increase of 6.92 million over the previous year. The year 2006 saw 15.84 million births, a crude birth rate of 12.09 per thousand, and 8.92 million deaths, or a crude death rate of 6.81 per thousand. The natural growth rate was 5.28 per thousand. The sex ratio at birth was 119.25.

Table 14: Composition of Population in 2006

In 2006, the annual per-capita net income of rural households was 3,587 yuan, or a real increase of 7.4 percent. The annual per-capita disposable income of urban households was 11,759 yuan, or a real increase of 10.4 percent. The Engel Coefficient (which refers to the proportion of expenditure on food to the total expenditure of households) was 43 percent for rural households and 35.8 percent for urban households. The population in absolute poverty in rural areas with annual per-capita net income below 693 yuan numbered 21.48 million at the end of 2006, a decline of 2.17 million over the previous year.

The low-income population in rural areas with annual per-capita net income between 694 and 958 yuan numbered 35.5 million, a decline of 5.17 million.

At the end of 2006, 186.49 million people participated in basic pension programs, a year-on-year increase of 11.62 million. Of this total, 140.28 million were staff and workers, and 46.21 million were retirees. A total of 157.37 million people participated in urban basic health insurance programs, an increase of 19.54 million, of whom 115.87 million were staff and workers, 41.5 million were retirees. About 111.87 million people participated in unemployment insurance programs, an increase of 5.39 million. Some 102.35 million people participated in work accident insurance, an increase of 17.57 million, of which 25.38 million were migrant workers coming from the rural areas, an increase of 12.86 million. Some 64.46 million people participated in maternity insurance programs, an increase of 10.38 million.

The total income of various social security funds reached 851.7 billion yuan and the total expenditure stood at 658.3 billion yuan. The number of people receiving unemployment insurance payment stood at 3.27 million. Some 22.41 million urban residents received the government minimum living allowances, or 67,000 more than the previous year. About 15.09 million rural residents received the government minimum living allowance, an increase of 6.84 million.

Social welfare institutions of various types provided 1.75 million beds by the end of 2006, accommodating 1.36 million inmates. There were 120,000 community service facilities in urban areas, including 9,817 comprehensive community service centers. Some 49.6 billion yuan worth of social welfare lottery tickets were sold, raising 17.4 billion yuan of social welfare funds. Another 3.5 billion yuan were received from direct donations.

XII. Resources, Environment and Work Safety

Some 167,000 hectares of cultivated land was used for construction purpose in 2006. An area of 36,000 hectares of cultivated land was destroyed by disasters, 339,000 hectares of farmland was converted into land for ecological preservation and structural adjustment to agriculture led to a reduction of 40,000 hectares of cultivated land. Non-reported farmland of 91,000 hectares used for construction purposes in earlier years was revealed in 2006. Land reclamation and re-development programs added 367,000 hectares of cultivated land. As a result, the year 2006 witnessed a net reduction of 306,000 hectares of cultivated land.

The total stock of water resources in 2006 was 2.55 trillion cubic meters, a year-on-year decline of 9.1 percent, or 1,945 cubic meters in per-capita terms, down by 9.6 percent. The annual average precipitation was 604 millimeters, down by 6.2 percent. Large reservoirs in China stored 180.6 billion cubic meters of water at the end of 2006, or 24.5 billion cubic meters less than that at the end of 2005. Total water consumption went up by 0.7 percent to reach 567 billion cubic meters, of which, water consumption for living purposes rose by 0.7 percent, for industrial use up by 1.9 percent and for agricultural use up by 0.2 percent. Water consumption for every 10,000 yuan worth of GDP produced was 279 cubic meters, a decline of 8.8 percent. Water consumption for every 10,000 yuan worth of industrial added value was 151 cubic meters, down by 9 percent. Per-capita water consumption was 432 cubic meters, maintaining the same level as in 2005. Some 35.78 million people and 29.36 million large domestic animals suffered temporary shortage of drinking water during the year.

National land surveys and geological explorations discovered a total of 213 new mineral deposits in large or medium size, including 42 energy mineral deposits, 85 metallic mineral deposits, 85 non-metallic mineral deposits and one aqueous and gaseous deposit. Increased reserves were found for 72 minerals, including 944 million tons of crude oil, 538.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 36.7 billion tons of coal.

A total of 4.57 million hectares of forest were planted, of which 2.52 million were afforested by manpower. Some 2.97 million hectares were afforested through key afforestation projects, accounting for 65 percent of the total planted area of the year. About 1.89 billion trees were planted in 2006 by volunteers. By the end of 2006, there were 233 national ecological demonstration zones approved and 2,395 natural reserves including 265 national ones and covering a total area of 151.54 million hectares, or 15 percent of the total land area of China. About 42,000 square km of eroded land were put under comprehensive treatment programs, and 62,000 square km of land were closed for nurture and protection in areas suffering water and soil erosion.

Preliminary estimation indicated that the total energy consumption in 2006 amounted to 2.46 billion tons of standard coal equivalent, up 9.3 percent over 2005. Of this total, the consumption of coal was 2.37 billion tons, up 9.6 percent; crude oil 320 million tons, up 7.1 percent; natural gas 55.6 billion cubic meters, up 19.9 percent; hydro-electric power 416.7 billion kwh, up 5 percent; and nuclear power 54.3 billion kwh, up 2.4 percent. The consumption of major kinds of raw materials included 450 million tons of rolled steel, up 17.2 percent; 3.72 million tons of copper, down by 4 percent; 8.65 million tons of aluminum, up 32.1 percent; 9.39 million tons of ethylene, up by 23.9 percent; and 1.2 billion tons of cement, up 14.5 percent. Energy consumption for producing 10,000 yuan worth of GDP was 1.21 tons of standard coal equivalents, down by 1.23 percent over that in 2005.

Monitoring of water quality on 408 sections of the seven major water systems in China showed that 46 percent of the sections met the national quality standard of Grade III for surface water, 28 percent of the sections met the quality standard of Grade IV or V, and 26 percent were below Grade V. There was no significant change of the water quality in the seven major water systems as compared with that in the previous year.