Table 3.
Characteristics of rural and urban respondents, CHARLS 2011 and CHARLS 2015.
| CHARLS 2011 (n = 6048) | CHARLS 2015 (n = 7396) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rural (n = 4391) |
Urban (n = 1657) |
p | Rural (n = 5385) |
Urban (n = 2011) |
p | |
| % | % | % | % | |||
| Age (mean ± SD a, years) | 68.3 ± 7.0 | 69.0 ± 7.0 | 0.001 * | 68.6 ± 7.2 | 69.2 ± 7.2 | 0.001 * |
| Age group (years) | 0.009 ** | 0.001 ** | ||||
| 60–64 | 38.3 | 34.3 | 35.8 | 32.7 | ||
| 65–69 | 24.6 | 23.2 | 26.9 | 26.3 | ||
| 70–74 | 17.3 | 20.0 | 17.7 | 17.3 | ||
| 75–79 | 11.4 | 13.7 | 10.5 | 14.2 | ||
| 80–84 | 5.7 | 6.3 | 5.9 | 6.3 | ||
| 85–89 | 2.0 | 2.1 | 2.5 | 2.5 | ||
| 90+ | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 0.7 | ||
| Sex | 0.111 *** | 0.006 *** | ||||
| Male | 49.6 | 51.9 | 48.3 | 51.9 | ||
| Female | 50.4 | 48.1 | 51.7 | 48.1 | ||
| Marital status | <0.001 *** | <0.001 *** | ||||
| Married | 76.7 | 81.1 | 77.3 | 81.6 | ||
| Unmarried | 23.3 | 18.9 | 22.7 | 18.4 | ||
| Living arrangement | <0.001 *** | 0.234 *** | ||||
| Not living alone | 90.5 | 86.3 | 91.1 | 91.9 | ||
| Living alone | 9.5 | 13.7 | 8.9 | 8.1 | ||
| Living near children | <0.001 ** | 0.818 *** | ||||
| Living near children | 90.9 | 91.9 | 87.4 | 87.9 | ||
| Not living near children | 6.9 | 4.7 | 10.5 | 10.2 | ||
| No child | 2.2 | 3.4 | 2.0 | 1.8 | ||
| Educational level | <0.001 ** | <0.001 ** | ||||
| Below primary school | 67.2 | 26.6 | 64.9 | 22.0 | ||
| Primary school | 23.5 | 23.9 | 22.8 | 27.5 | ||
| Middle school | 7.8 | 24.6 | 9.8 | 26.0 | ||
| High school | 1.5 | 16.5 | 2.4 | 17.3 | ||
| College and above | 0.1 | 8.3 | 0.1 | 7.2 | ||
| Income (mean, CNY b) | 4126 | 18,846 | <0.001 * | 5294 | 20,979 | <0.001 * |
| Income group | <0.001 ** | <0.001 ** | ||||
| First group (low) | 21.0 | 4.0 | 10.4 | 5.3 | ||
| Second group | 22.8 | 2.2 | 11.8 | 1.3 | ||
| Third group | 20.2 | 6.1 | 11.9 | 1.9 | ||
| Fourth group | 13.9 | 18.9 | 10.0 | 7.0 | ||
| Fifth group (high) | 6.2 | 50.2 | 4.1 | 24.4 | ||
| Missing | 15.9 | 18.7 | 51.8 | 60.1 | ||
a SD: Standard Deviation; b CNY: Chinese Yuan; * Independent t test; ** Chi-square test. The level of significance was specified at 0.05. A Bonferroni adjusted significance level was used in case of multiple tests; *** Chi-square test.