The improvement of People’s Living Standards

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In vigorously promoting family planning，China strives to make the speed of population growth much lower than the speed of growth in the gross national product，thus gradually raising the per-capita level.A part from the reform and opening to the outside world，family planning has been a factor for the sustained economic development of China and the steady improvement of its people’s living standards over the past ten years and more.From 1952 to 1978，China’s gross domestic product（GDP）increased 4.7-fold.The per-capita GDP，however，increased by only 2.8 fold.From 1978 to 1994，while upholding reform and opening to the outsideworld and making great efforts to develop the economy，China persisted in doing a good iob in family planning.In this period，the GDP went.up 4.2 fold and the per-capita GDP increased 3.4-fold.During the same period，thanks to improvements in the quality of people’s lives and the rise in their purchasing power，China’s consumer goods market expanded 13.7-fold.

And the total retail sales volume of consumer goods increased by an annual I69 average of 17.2 percent.In 1994，the total volume of retail sales of consumer goods in China was 1，605.3 bilion yuan.China has become a market with the greatest potential in the world.Compared with 1978，livingstandards have markedly improved，the urban people’s per-capita incomes for living expenses increased 10-fold，at an annual increase of 15.5 percent；the per-capita net incomes for rural families went up 9-fold，at an annual increase of 14.8 percent.In Chinese cities and towns，the per-capita housing increased from 3.6 square metres to 7.5 square metres，and in the rural areas it increased from 8.1 square metres to 20.8 square metres.

For the overwhelming majority of families，the basic needs of living，such as food，clothing，daily-use articles and housing，were met.The possession rate of durable goods，such as TV sets，cassette tape recorders，refrigerators and washing machines，approached the level of the moderately developed countries.