Facts and figures

China generally has made significant steps towards improving its population's standard of living and health, particularly over the last two decades of the country's strong economic growth.  

Life expectancy has risen from 63 years in 1970-1975 to 72.5 years in 2005 and infant mortality rates have dropped from 85 per 1,000 live births in 1970 to 23 in 2005. 

While the country's general health situation has improved, this is not reflected across the whole population and varies considerably from region to region. For example, the under-five mortality rate is more than two times higher in the western provinces than in the more developed eastern provinces.

Jiangxi Province, where The Foundation's work is currently focused, is located in southeast inland China, and has a population of 44 million people (2009). The majority (73%) of the population is engaged in the agricultural sector, and 60% live in rural areas.

Historically one of the poorer Provinces in China, Jiangxi Province has recently experienced stronger economic growth. This growth, however, has been focused in urban areas and like many provinces in China, rural areas in Jiangxi Province remain poor.

• Number of blind people: 6.6 million
• Main causes of blindness: Cataract (47%), retina/uvea disease (13%), corneal blindness (9%), refractive errors (6%) and glaucoma (6%)
• Number of people visually impaired: 12-14 million, mostly caused by refractive error
  
• Number of people with cataract blindness: 2.5 million backlog and an annual incidence of 1.04 million cases
• Number of cataract operations per year: 1.12 million, a cataract surgical rate of approximately 800 operations per million population per year
• Number of ophthalmologists: 28,000
• Reasons for low cataract surgical rates and backlog: Cost and quality of cataract surgery, public fear and misconceptions about surgery, lack of awareness about cataract blindness, attitudes to health (particularly towards elderly people), access to services and lack of health insurance for rural populations.

Sources: Orbis International, National Statistical Yearbook 2006, World Health Organization, & Chinese Ophthalmology Society, Chinese Disabled Peoples Federation

• Population: 1.3 billion
• Urban population: 47%
• Life expectancy: 73.5 years
• Literacy rate: 93.7%
• Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 births): 18
  
• Percentage of population which is undernourished: 10%
• Number of doctors (per 10,000 people): 14

Source: United Nations Development Program Report 2010