Family sizes are shrinking in China. The National Health and Family Planning Commission released a 2015 report on Chinese Family Development on May 13, after conducting a survey of 32,494 households and 184,439 people.
Subjects were from 1,624 villages, 31 provinces, 321 counties, autonomous regions and municipalities.
Small families having two or three members predominate, accounting for 21.9 percent and 31.7 percent, respectively. Four-member families make up 21.9 percent, while five-member families follow with 11.5 percent. 6.4 percent are single-member units.
Further, 35.1 percent of all children in rural areas are left-behind. 6.1 percent of wives in those regions are also left-behind, as with 23.3 percent of all seniors.
Nuclear types make up 64.3 percent of all families, with the number of single-member or seniors-only families growing. Half of all seniors in urban and rural areas both do not remain with their children; 10 percent live by themselves, and 41.9 percent live with their spouses.
There is increasing demand for healthcare services for seniors. They mainly rely on their children for financial support, more so in rural than urban areas. Most of the elderly care for themselves or depend on family members.
32.4 percent of children up to 5 years old have their paternal grandparents as main caregiver, while 7.5 percent are cared for by their maternal grandparents.
While family units are decreasing in size, the financial gap between families is widening. The top 20 percent of all families earn 19 times more than the bottom 20 percent. Those that observe the family planning policy proved more prosperous as opposed to those who do not comply.