A total of 43.29 percent of China’s disabled people aged 15 or above are illiterate, according to the results of the second China National Sample Survey on Disability.*
This represents a considerable drop from the 59 percent illiteracy rate in recorded in 1987, according to the survey.
The survey was conducted throughout China by government organizations, with 2,526,145 people in 771,797 households being inverviewed between April 1 and May 31, 2006.
People classified as disabled comprise 6.34 percent of the PRC’s population, or about 83 million people. More than 75 percent of these live in rural areas.
* Regular readers of this site know that I have little faith in the accuracy of China’s official statistics, especially concerning the topic of literacy. But I do like to keep track of what the PRC is saying about this.
source: Most of China’s disabled not financialy [sic] independent: survey, Xinhua via People’s Daily, May 29, 2007