XI. Population, People’s Livelihood and Social Security

The local population was on a steady rise. By end of 2015, there were 4.701 million permanent residents with a year-on-year growth of 0.1%, among which 3.291 million were urban residents. And the urbanization rate reached 70.0%. The total number of registered residents grew by 0.6% to 3.709 million, among which 1.836 million were males, up by 0.4% and 1.873 million were females, up by 0.8%. The birth rate and death rate of the registered residents stood at 9.6� and 7� respectively, with a natural population growth rate of 2.7�?

Efforts were made to promote employment. In 2015, 133,000 persons were newly employed, 12,979 persons started their own business with government support, and 11,362 disadvantaged persons became employed with government aids. And the registered urban unemployment rate remained below 4%. Besides, the second Changzhou College Student Entrepreneurship Competition was successfully organized and 330 business proposals were collected subsequently. The new enterprise-school apprenticeship system was initiated, which brought companies and schools together to produce workers in a targeted manner. Moreover, employment and entrepreneurship for the handicapped were actively promoted with 853 disabled persons being newly employed in 2015. The year 2015 also witnessed an increase of 38,500 highly-skilled talents and the number of highly-skilled talents per 10,000 workers reached 824, ranking the first in Jiangsu.

People’s incomes were on a steady rise. In 2015, the per capita disposable income of the city’s residents increased by 8.3% to 35,379 RMB, among which the per capita disposable income of urban residents grew by 8.2% to 42,710 RMB while that of rural residents increased by 8.8% to 21,912 RMB. The ratio of the urban residents� income to the rural residents� income stood at 1.95:1. The per capita spending in 2015 grew by 7.9% to 22,234 RMB, among which the per capita spending of urban residents grew by 7.5% to 25,358 RMB and that of rural residents increased by 9.1% to 14,764. The Engel Coefficient of urban residents and rural residents stood at 28% and 31.7%, down by 0.3% and 0.1% respectively over 2014.

CPI grew at a mild pace. The city’s general Consumer Price Index ( CPI ) stood at 101.6 in 2015. Among the eight major categories of consumer goods, the prices of transportation and telecommunications fell by 4.4%. CPI for food, garments, home appliances&maintenance, health care&individual goods, housing, cigarettes&wine, and entertaining&educational&cultural goods and services stood at 104.0, 103.1, 102.4, 101.4, 101.2, 101.1, and 100.9 respectively.

Security housing was advanced in an orderly manner. Construction work on security housing units was well underway. In 2015, 19,065 new security housing units were started and 15,847 security housing units were basically completed. 953 new households enjoyed public rental housing, among which 710 households were given rental housing units directly and 243 households received rental subsidies. In 2014, 86.8% of the city’s urban security housing system was completed, making Changzhou the No.1 in this aspect in Jiangsu.

Social security was improved. By end of 2015, 1.338 million residents joined the enterprise employee’s endowment insurance system, up by 2.5% over the previous year. 1.881 million residents joined the urban worker’s basic medical insurance system, up by 5.5% over 2014. 1.087 million residents joint the urban unemployment insurance system, up by 3.3%. The three major insurance systems ( endowment insurance, medical insurance, and unemployment insurance ) covered 98% of the total population. Besides, pensions to retirees grew for 11 years in a row, with a per capita growth rate of above 10%.

Social welfare continued to improve. The year 2015 saw a substantial increase of Changzhou’s basic living allowances. The basic living allowance for residents in Tianning District, Zhonglou District and Xinbei District stood at 670 RMB per month, that in Jintan District and Liyang County-city stood at 590 RMB, and that in Wujin District stood at 620 RMB. In 2015, 23,351 households and 39,734 persons were covered by the basic living allowance system, among which were 7,906 urban households of 13,123 residents and 15,445 rural households of 26,611 residents. A total sum of 177 million RMB worth of basic living allowances was handed out. In 2015, 152,997 residents received direct medical aids of 59.075 million RMB. By end of 2015, there were 108 aged care institutions with 21,968 beds, accommodating 12,274 persons. In addition, the sales volume of lottery tickets throughout the year was 1.102 billion RMB. In 2015, local charity organizations collected a total donation of 118 million RMB and handed out a total relief fund of 86.46 million RMB, covering 160,000 persons in need.