China's rural development in past decade

BEIJING -- Agricultural productivity and the livelihood of rural residents have improved over the past decade, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday.

Since the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in late 2002, the government has taken a raft of measures to strengthen the agricultural sector and bring benefits to farmers, the report said.

The following are facts and figures from the report:

-- Total grain output surged from 114.15 million tonnes in 2002 to 571.21 million metric tons in 2011, representing an annual growth of 25 percent.

-- Grain output has increased for eight consecutive years since 2004.

-- Net income per capita of rural residents rose by 180 percent from 2002 to 6,977 yuan ($1,102) in 2011, achieving an annual growth rate of 8.1 percent.

-- By the end of 2011, the total length of rural roads, including highways in counties and townships and cement-covered roads in villages, reached 3.56 million kilometers, up 170 percent from 2002.

-- The rural road network connected 99.97 percent of all townships and 99.38 of all villages in China by 2011.

-- Average residential area of rural residents rose 36.6 percent from 2002 to 36.2 square meters in 2011.

-- A total of 832 million people, or 97.5 percent of all rural residents were covered by China's rural cooperative medical care system by 2011.

-- China's system of subsistence allowances for rural residents covered 53.14 million people and 26.63 households by the end of 2011.