By Cheng Yu & Ruan Rongping

Research Report Vol.18 No.6, 2016

Based on the household survey of people’s livelihood in 2015¹, education, health care, elderly care, housing, living environment and food safety are highly concerned by urban and rural residents, which affect people’s life satisfaction to different degrees. However, health care and elderly care have the biggest effect on life satisfaction of the respondents, ranking the second and the sixth respectively among all unsatisfactory factors in household life.

I. What Urban and Rural Residents are Dissatisfied with Reflect the Weak Areas in Basic Public Services

In 2015, 28.75% of the respondents were not dissatisfied with anything in their household life. Those respondents who reported they were dissatisfied with one or more factors² accounted for 17.56% in health care, 11.27% in housing, 9.9% in children’s education, and 7.11% in elderly care, a total of 45.84% reportingthese four factors were the most unsatisfactory. Therefore, except income and employment, urban and rural residents are dissatisfied with life mainly because of inadequate basic public services. In 2015, 34.91% of the respondents said they were not dissatisfied with anything about social environment. Those reporting they were dissatisfied with one or more factors think environmental pollution and ecological damage, food safety, rich-poor gap, transportation, supporting services for daily life were most unsatisfactory, accounting for 24.19%, 19.09%, 17.69%, 14.23% and 9.65% respectively of the effective sample. Among them, 43.28% chose environmental pollution and ecological damage, and food safety as the most unsatisfactory factors (see Figure 1).

But urban and rural residents focus on different aspects of social environment. Among all unsatisfactory factors of social environment in 2015, the proportion of urban residents who were most dissatisfied with food safety reached 31.54%, significantly higher than the 21.41% in suburban areas and 11.71% in rural areas. On the one hand, farmers were more confident about food safety as they are producers; on the other hand, urban residents were more concerned with food safety and had higher expectations in this regard. For suburban and rural residents, the proportions of them who were most dissatisfied with environmental pollution and ecological damage were 26.33% and 22.92%, respectively. Therefore more importance should be attached to environmental pollution and ecological damage in suburban and rural areas.

II. Effect of Basic Public Services on Life Satisfaction

1. Effect of education on life satisfaction

(1) Children’s education expenditure affects life satisfaction. Based on the survey in 2015, 20.69% of the respondents believed education incurred one of the largest expenditures, ranking the third among all factors; while the proportion rose to 33.6% for families with children.

Education expenditure has a significant negative correlation with life satisfaction, i.e. the less education expenditure, the more life satisfaction. Among respondents who were very satisfied with life, education accounted for 21.58% of the total expenditure, while the percentage rose to 23.40% for respondents who were very dissatisfied with life (see Figure 2). The average education expenditure was 5,529 yuan if children were receiving compulsory education, 9,216 yuan if children were in secondary school, 11,408 yuan if children were in vocational school, and 14,174 yuan if children were studying for a bachelor’s degree or above. As their children received more education, families spent more on education, which had become a burden for many low-income families and greatly reduced their life satisfaction.

(2) Long distance between home and school affects life satisfaction. There is a negative correlation, that is, the longer distance, the less life satisfaction. As shown in Figure 3, among respondents who were very satisfied with life, the average home-school distance was 6.18 kilometers, while the distance was 6.96 kilometers reported by respondents with the least life satisfaction. It has become a pronounced problem that children in rural areas have to go a long way to school. Rural respondents with school children receiving compulsory education traveling “over 10 kilometers” from home to school accounted for 13.8%. And 13.5% of the respondents who were dissatisfied with education said that “schools are too far and it is not convenient for their kids to go to school”, ranking the second among all factors.

2. Effect of health care on life satisfaction

(1) Health care burden significantly reduces life satisfaction. A total of 24.41% of the respondents said health care incurred the largest expenditure, ranking the third among all factors. One major reason is that only a small part of medical cost can be reimbursed. In the 2015 survey, 41.4% of medical cost was reimbursed by medical insurance on average, so that 34% of the respondents had to borrow money to receive medical treatment for their family members.

Medical expenditure is negatively correlated with life satisfaction, which means the more medical expenditure, the less life satisfaction. In 2015, medical expenditure of the respondents who reported they were very dissatisfied with life accounted for 28.22% in their total expenditure, while the percentage was only 10.40% for those who were very satisfied with life. The former is nearly three times the latter (see Figure 4).

(2) Concerns about affordability of medical services reduce life satisfaction. With limited medical insurance, most families are worried about medical expenditure in the future. Among all respondents, 22.9% were very worried and 36.6% were somewhat worried about affordability of future medical services, which showed nearly 60% of the respondents had such a concern.

The more worried respondents are, the more they are dissatisfied with life. The proportion of the respondents who were worried about future medical expenditure but very satisfied with life was only 7.66%, 2, 6, 14, and 30 percentage points lower than that of the respondents who were somewhat worried, neither worried nor unworried, somewhat unworried and very unworried (see Figure 5).

3. Effect of elderly care on life satisfaction

(1) Elderly care expenditure affects life satisfaction. That is to say, the more family spends on elderly care, the less they are satisfied with life. In the 2015 survey, elderly care expenditure of the respondents who were very dissatisfied with life accounted for 22.64% of the total expenditure, 6, 11, 13 and 12 percentage points higher than that of those who were somewhat dissatisfied, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, somewhat satisfied, and very satisfied with life (see Figure 6). ...

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