According to a report by the People's Daily, the National Bureau of Statistics and the Sampling Research Group of Disabled Persons in China have jointly released their second report on disabled Chinese, including their population, age group, sex ratio, educational level, employment and social security.

The report says that by April 1, 2006, there were 82.96 million disabled persons in China, taking up 6.34% of the total population.

In fact the disabled population in China is rising fast nowadays. The number of disabled persons above 60 years old has increased by 23.65 million, taking up 75.5% of the total disabled population. The extended life expectancy of the Chinese people has also contributed to the rising risks of becoming disabled.

The biggest problem to disabled Chinese is poverty, for most of them can't find proper jobs to make ends meet. It is said that there are disabled members in about 17.8% of Chinese families, and a family with most members being disabled can only earn less than 50% of the average family income.

Social service to disabled persons is not satisfactory, either, for most of such service is not designed to meet their needs. At present, there are not enough medical equipment and poverty-reducing facilities particularly designed for them.
 
(Chinanews.cn May 30, 2007)