Disability Statistics in the People's Republic of China
Zhuoying Qiu
President, Department of Rehabilitation Psychology, China Rehabilitation Research Center, China
Abstract This paper tries to present the figures of people with disabilities in China. As we all know, China is a developing country in the world, so to a certain extent it is difficult to collect an accurate figures of the total number of people with disabilities. At the beginning, the classification of disability will be stated in order to make a clear picture of the classification in China. After analyzing some surveys collected and conducted previously, a general picture of the total number of people with disabilities will be drawn.
Introduction to National Sampling Survey of Disabled Persons in the People's Republic of China
China is a developing country with the largest population in the world and also has the most populous disabled people in the world. Because of this, it is not easy to administrate the census of disabled population.
According to the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Disabled Persons, a disabled person refers to one who suffers from abnormalities or loss of certain organ or function, psychologically or in anatomical structure and has lost wholly or in part the ability to perform an activity in the way considered normal. In 1987, a national sampling survey of disabled population was administrated in China. This was the first and only national survey of disabled population in China.
In this survey, 369,448 families and 1,579,316 people were sampled. Then, 66,902 families, which have family members with disabilities were selected. Finally, 77,345 disabled persons had been determined.
The Classification and Grading of Disabled Persons
According to the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Disabled Persons, the term "disabled person" refers to those with visual, hearing, speech or physical disabilities, mental retardation, mental disorder, multiple disabilities and / or other disabilities. In 1987, the State Council had established disability classification system with five sub-classifications for the national census. They are visual impairment, hearing and speech impairment, mental retardation, physical handicaps and mental disorder. The grading standard of each category is as follows:
1. Visual Impairment: it can be divided into two categories, blind and low-vision.
CATEGORIES GRADING STANDARD Blind 1 Single eyed vision is no greater than 0.02 or visual field is no less 5 degree 2 Single eyed vision is no less than 0.05 and no greater 0.02 or visual field is no less 10 degree Low-vision 1 Single eyed vision is no less than 0.05 and no grater 0.02 2 Single eyed vision is no less than 0.03 and no greater than 0.1
2. Hearing and Speech Impairment: it can be divided into three categories.
CATEGORIES GRADING STANDARD Deaf 1 The loss of hearing is greater than 91 decibels 2 The loss of hearing is no less than 71 decibels and no greater than 90 decibels Hearing Impairment 1 The loss of hearing is no less than 56 decibels and no greater than 70 decibels 2 The loss of hearing is no less than 41 decibels and no greater than 55 decibels Speech Handicap
3. Mental Retardation: The mentally retarded peoples can be graded into four categories in accordance with the WHO and AAMD (American Association for Mental Retardation) standards.
CATEGORIES SD IQ ADAPTATION Very severely MR >>5.01 20~25 very severely deficiency of adaptation Severely MR 4.10~5 20~35or25~40 severely deficiency of adaptation Moderate MR 3.01~4 35~50or40~55 moderate deficiency of adaptation Less MR 2.01~3 50~70or55~75 mild deficiency of adaptation
4. Physical Handicaps: Physical handicap people can be divided into four categories. They are: a. loss of upper or lower limbs due to trauma, disease or congenital factors. b. Anamorphosis or dysfunction of upper or lower limbs due to trauma, disease or congenital factors. c. Anamorphosis of dysfunction of spinal cord. d. Anamorphosis or dysfunction of trunk or limbs due to trauma, disease or congenital factors. They can be graded basis on the parts and degrees of disability and functional barriers.
CATEGORIES GRADING STANDARD 1 0~2 Complete loss of ADL 2 3~4 basic loss of ADL 3 5~6 partial maintaining of ADL 4 7~8 basic maintaining of ADL
5. Mental Disorder. It includes four categories. They are: a. Organic psychosis with psychotic symptoms. b. Psychoactive substance-induced residual disorder. c. Schizophrenia. d. Disability due to affective, paranoid, response, schizotypal affective, periodic psychotic disorder.All persons can be graded the mental disorder peoples into four categories basis on the Scale of Screening of Deficiencies of Social Function by WHO.
General Procedures of Sampling Survey for Disabled Population
The national sampling survey was carried out in April 1, 1987 in 29 provinces and autonomous regions. 1,500,000 population were sampled by using the stratified sampling method.
Sampling at three levels was administrated. The offices at provincial level selected 424 counties, then the counties selected 1,852 villages, towns and streets and the villages. Finally, towns and streets selected 3,569 residents committees for this survey.
The investigation was administrated in two stages. Firstly residential family investigation. The 369,448 sampled families and 1,579,316 people were asked to report the disabled candidates according to the screening table. Secondly disabled person investigation. All candidates received medical test were graded according to the Classification of Disabled Persons. 66,902 families with disabled persons and 77,345 people with disabilities were selected.
Special processes were used for quality control. The data were processed by handiwork and computer. The offices at county level summed up the data by age, sex and grading. The offices at provincial level summed up the data and reported to the Office of National Sampling Survey of the Handicapped. For the computer processing, the data were encoded at the provincial level by the Office of National Sampling Survey of the Handicapped. All encoded data were processed by Computer Center of National Planning Committee.
General Statistics for Disabled Population by Categories, Age, Literacy, Vocation, Nationality, Marriage, ADL, Social Activity, Working Ability, Financial Resources
1. National population of disabled persons by categories
As shown in Table 1, the national population of disabled persons is 88,763 (including multiple handicaps). The most population of disabled persons are the people with hearing and speech impairment.
Table 1 National Population of Disabled Persons by Category (including multiple handicaps)
Categories Population % of Total disabled persons - Male Female Total Male Female Total Vision impairment 5,937 9,986 15,923 6.69 11.25 17.94 Hearing and speech impairment 17,414 17,030 34,444 19.62 19.19 38.80 Including Speech handicaps 1,419 850 2,269 1.60 0.96 2.56 Mental retardation 10,482 9,540 20,022 11.81 10.75 22.56 Physical handicaps 8,354 6,113 14,467 9.41 6.89 16.30 Mental disorder 1,780 2,127 3,907 2.00 2.40 4.40 Total population 43,967 44,796 88,763 49.53 50.47 100.00
2. The National population of disabled persons by categories and gradingThe National population of disabled persons by categories and grading is shown in Table 2.
Table 2 The National Population of Disabled Persons by Categories and Grading
Categories and grading Male Female Total Vision impairment 5,937 9,986 15,923 Blind 1 1,650 2,931 4,581 Blind 2 786 1,459 2,245 Low-vision 1 794 1,368 2,162 Low-vision 2 2,707 4,228 6,935 Hearing & speech impairment 17,414 17,030 34,444 Deaf 1 2,557 2,505 5,062 Deaf 2 3,440 3,324 6,764 Low-hearing 1 4,625 4,882 9,507 Low-hearing 2 5,373 5,469 10,842 Speech impairment 1,419 850 2,269 Mental retardation 10,482 9,540 20,022 Extremely severely MR 577 499 1,076 Severely MR 1,309 1,179 2,488 Moderate MR 3,342 3,159 6,501 Mild MR 5,254 4,703 9,957 Physical Handicaps 8,354 6,113 14,467 Grade 1 450 426 876 Grade 2 1,048 860 1,908 Grade 3 2,051 1,403 3,454 Grade 4 4,805 3,424 8,229 Mental Disorder 1,780 2,127 3,907 Grade 1 858 999 1,857 Grade 2 242 292 534 Grade 3 275 320 595 Grade 4 405 516 921
3. The National population of disabled persons by ageThe National population of disabled persons by age is shown in Table 3.
Table 3 The National Population of Disabled Persons by Age
Age Total Male Female 0-4 years 2,221 1,205 1,016 5-9 years 4,070 2,250 1,820 10-14 years 5,951 3,343 2,608 15-19 years 4,348 2,444 1,904 20-24 years 3,888 2,142 1,746 25-29 years 2,692 1,498 1,194 30-34 years 3,798 2,037 1,761 35-39 years 3,746 1,982 1,764 40-44 years 3,303 1,727 1,576 45-49 years 3,390 1,792 1,598 50-54 years 4,160 2,091 2,069 55-59 years 5,057 2,563 2,494 60-64 years 6,032 3,001 3,031 65-69 years 6,573 3,167 3,406 70-74 years 6,889 3,136 3,753 75-79 years 5,792 2,433 3,359 80-84 years 3,714 1,342 2,372 85-89 years 1,325 417 908 90-99 years 379 120 259 Over 100 years 17 4 13
4. The National population of employed disabled persons by vocation and educationThe National population of employed disabled persons by vocation and education is shown in Table 4.
Table 4 The National Population of Employed Disabled Persons by Vocation and Education
Vocational categories Employed disabled persons Education University high school - Total male female Total male female Total male female 1. professional and technical personnel 491 374 117 81 69 12 154 103 51 2. leaders of public institutions 146 130 16 10 9 1 36 32 4 3. public servant 142 99 43 6 3 3 46 29 17 4. business 439 308 131 2 2 - 45 33 12 5. service 849 635 214 2 1 1 49 28 21 6. agriculture, forest, pasturage, fishery 18,818 12,388 6,430 4 3 1 239 199 40 7. production,transportation workers 2,277 1,602 675 9 7 2 223 147 76 8. others 54 36 18 3 3 - 9 8 1 9. total 23,216 15,572 7,644 117 97 20 801 579 222
5. The national population of unemployed disabled personsThe national population of unemployed disabled persons (15 or above 15 years old) is shown in Table 5.
Table 5 The National Population of Unemployed Disabled Persons
- Total Male Female School or college students 575 412 163 Housework 14,942 2,675 12,267 Await for job after graduation 28 13 15 Await for study 10 5 5 Await for job at cities or towns 185 110 75 Retirement or withdrawal from job 3,802 2,730 1,072 Others 22,345 10,379 11,966 Total 41,887 16,324 25,563
6. The financial resources of national population with disabilityThe financial resources of national population with disability are shown in Table 6.
Table 6 The Financial Resources of National Population with Disability
Categories Disabled persons Personal income Family afford Nation or collective - - No. % of income No. % of income No. % of income Vision-impaired 11,300 2,804 30.27 8,106 71.73 390 2.65 Hearing-impaired 26,518 11,950 45.06 14,025 52.89 543 2.05 Speech disabled 1,002 398 39.72 596 59.48 8 0.08 Mental Retradation 15,235 2,700 17.72 12,392 81.34 143 0.94 Physical handicaps 11,305 3,922 34.69 6,957 61.54 426 3.77 Mental Disorder 2,907 720 24.77 2,023 69.59 164 5.64 Multiple handicaps 10,080 1,318 13.08 8,380 83.13 382 3.79 Total 77,345 23,414 30.27 51,883 67.08 2,048 2.65
The Growth of Disabled Population from 1987 to 1996In 1996, the China Disabled Persons Federation announced new statistics of disabled persons. At present; there are 1.2 billion population and 60 million disabled peoples in the P.R. China. About 5% of total population are disabled persons. They are as follows:
1. Vision impairment 8,770,000 2. Hearing and speech impairment 20,570,000 3. Mental retardation 11,820,000 4. Physically handicaps 8,770,000 5. Mental disorder 2,250,000 6. Multiple disabilities and other disabilities 7,820,000 Comparing to the statistics in 1985, there are some increases in disabled population.
Among the 60 million people, there are 25,080,000 who are employable and with legislative employment age. Among them, there are 4,500,000 who are non-agricultural population in urban areas and 20,580,000 agricultural population in rural areas. They are the target population for employment service and vocational rehabilitation.
References
The Office of National Sampling Survey of the Handicaps (1989). China Data of 1987 Sampling Survey of the Handicaps. Beijing: The Office of National Sampling Survey of the Handicaps.
China Disabled Persons Federation (1996). Yearbook of Undertaking of Disabled Persons in P.R. China. Beijing: Huaxdia Publishing House.
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