Documentation for the Workshop / Country Papers : China

The Disability Statistics in China

1. 1987 National Sampling Survey on Persons with Disabilities

In 1987, China conducted the first large scale sampling survey on persons with disabilities. Through more than two years' preparation, the survey began in 29 provinces of Chinese mainland on 1st April 1987, and completed all the in-door survey, countercheck and spot-check of survey quality in middle May.

1.1 Survey Object

The survey object consists of persons with disabilities as follows: visual disabilities, hearing disabilities, mental disabilities, physically disabilities, mental illness and multi-disabilities.

1.2 Sampling Method

The survey adopted system sampling method by stratification, covering 369,816 households, 1,579,314 persons, which accounted for 1.50‰ of the whole population of China.

1.3 Results

The results are as follows: 66,888 households had members with disabilities, accounting for 18.10% of the total. And there were 77,343 persons with visual, hearing, mental, physical disabilities, mental illness and multi-disabilities, accounting for 4.90% of the total.
The number and percentage of persons with various categories of disabilities was: 26,516 were persons with hearing disabilities, accounting for 16.79‰; 15,233 were persons with mental disabilities, accounting for 9.65‰; 11,304 were persons with physical disabilities, accounting for 7.16‰; 11,303 were persons with visual disabilities, accounting for 7.16‰; 2,907 were persons with mental illness, accounting for 1.84‰ and 10,080 were persons with multi-disabilities, accounting for 6.38‰?

Estimated according to this sampling survey, there were about 60 million persons with disabilities in China, among whom 20.57 million were persons with hearing disabilities, 11.82 million were persons with mental disabilities, 8.77 million were persons with physical disabilities, 8.77 million were persons with visual disabilities, 2,25 million were persons with mental illness and 7.82 million were persons with multi-disabilities.

1.4 Significance of the Survey

The survey provided Chinese government with information concerning persons with disabilities as the scale, regional distribution, cause of disabilities and their medical treatment, rehabilitation, education, employment, marriage, families and participation status in social life etc., which offered reliable basis for the formulation of disability-related laws, regulations, policies, principles and working programs.

2. Status of disability statistics in China

In order to safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities, improve their conditions, and exploit the potentials of disabled persons, China Disabled Persons' Federation (abbreviated as CDPF) was established on 15 March 1988.

The CDPF, affirmed by the law and ratified by the State Council, is the unified national organization of and for persons with various categories of disabilities in China, which represents the common interest and protects the lawful rights of persons with disabilities; promotes and develops the disability undertakings and serves persons with disabilities.

Since its establishment, the CDPF was in charge of the disabilities statistics in China. In order to conform to the demand of development status on disability in China, the statistics by CDPF aimed at collecting data for the work of persons with disabilities, such as rehabilitation, education, employment, poverty alleviation, etc., so that the Chinese government could be kept aware of the development status of disabled persons as well as he work of persons with disabilities. The data will also provide reliable basis for the formulation of disability-related laws, regulations, policies, principles and working programs.

According to the statistics by CDPF, under the joint endeavor of the government, society and CDPF, the work for persons with disabilities in China has made remarkable progress and disabled persons' situations have been considerably improved since 1988:

--6.54 million persons with disabilities have been rehabilitated to different extends through major rehabilitation projects such as cataract surgeries, orthopaedic operation, hearing and speech training, systematic rehabilitation training, severe mental illness treatment and rehabilitation etc. Furthermore, over 3.78 million pieces of assistant devices have been provided for customers with disabilities.

--Due to the promotion of the CDPF, the Government has integrated the education of children with disabilities into the overall plan of compulsory education for synchronous implementation; the enrollment rate of children with visual, hearing impairments and mental retardation rose from less than 6% in 1987 up to 77.2% in 2000. Special schools increased from 504 in 1987 up to 1648 in 2000, 4,567 special classes have been set up in ordinary schools. 3 special colleges were established. And over 2.51 million trainees with disabilities have received vocational training to different degrees.

--3,012 employment service facilities for persons with disabilities at all levels have been established by the CDPF, conducting investigation of disabled persons waiting for jobs and registration of labour resources, offering training and recommendation for the employment of persons with disabilities. The employment rate of persons with disabilities in cities and township rose from less than 50% in 1987 up to over 80% in 2000.

--The CDPF promoted successfully the government to establish special loans upon poverty alleviation for persons with disabilities, over 13 million persons with disabilities in poverty in rural areas have got ride of poverty via productive labour, 2.69 million persons with disabilities who were short of conditions and absolute poverty have solved the problems of insufficient food and inadequate clothing by means of relief, subsidies, social security etc.

--Persons with disabilities have equal access to public culture facilities, in addition, more than 1,600 culture and recreation facilities for disabled people have come into use.

--The CDPF, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Construction Ministry of the Chinese government, jointly formulated and implemented the Design Codes for the Accessibility of People with Disabilities to Urban Roads and Buildings; the Codes have been being spread in big and medium-sized cities step by step.

All the data indicate that, by the endeavor of Chinese government, the work for persons with disabilities in China has made remarkable progress, and status of persons with disabilities have been considerably improved in participating in society with equal status and opportunities and sharing the cultural and material achievement brought about by the socio-economic development.

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