01.05.2001
Chinese people's average lifespan

Chinese people's average lifespan has almost doubled since New China was founded in 1949, according to statistics in China. The average lifespan has shot up by 36 years and people now live to 71, a dramatic shift from half a century ago. Before 1949, people were severely affected by many varieties of diseases due to the lack of health and medical care. 100,000 people were infected with Kala-azar, a tropical disease, 600,000 had malaria and 1.7 million suffered from tuberculosis in North China's Hebei Province alone. In the past 50 years, the nation has made great progress in building up its medical system, which features low costs, wide coverage and high efficiency. The death rate for pregnant women decreased to 63.6 out of every 100,000 from the previous 1,500. Medical facilities and institutes now total 310,000, increasing from 3,670 in 1949, with the number of beds increasing to 3.15 million from 80,000.