Rural-Urban Economic Disparities among China’s Elderly

(3) urban elderly have better social networks or social ties that help them get more
support from state government,

(4) urban areas have better social welfare systems than the rural, which is
embedded in the biased hierarchy system.

Table 9: Average income level and its sources (yuan)

Rural Urban

(yearly figures) (monthly figures)

* only a fraction of spouses do work so this average is misleading

On the other hand the community/local support is relatively more important for the rural
households, for the following reasons,

(a) rural elderly are predominantly farmers and self-employed peasants who never
had pension system or any social security,

(b) rural elderly are more likely to entirely depend on their children, spouses,
relatives, or local community for income support,

(c) since elderly have increasingly higher mortality than any of other age groups,
also since the children of these rural elderly are mostly farmers who don't earn wages, thus
once they become widowed or get poorer or lost their working ability even their children
are unable to provide support, they would apply for support from the local community,

(d) China's rural grass-roots organizations have specific and systematic agencies
such as local brigades or communes or counties, which are set up for this purpose,

(e) China's vast elderly are in the rural areas. Though the state government has little
ability to help the all of the rural elderly, the local communities or counties are supposed to

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