China’s reducing per capita living space

Last month, a statistical report that was related to household living space triggered public criticisms. On July 21, the Institute of Social Science Survey of Peking University issued China’s People’s Livelihood Development Report 2013, the report mentioned that in 2012 China’s household average living space was 100 square meters, and the per capita area was 30 square meters.

Those numbers caused much furor: why the area of my family is not as much as that of the survey report? Yes, the average amount covers the individual differences, and there is a great difference between the feeling of an individual and the average amount displayed.

Nevertheless, what is most surprising in the statistical data is not that the per household living space is 100 square meters, but such data has always been reducing from 2011: it was 92.5 square meters in 2008 and 116.4 square meters in 2011, why in 2012 the number became 100 square meters? Theoretically, each year there are newly built apartments, and there was no stagnation for the housing market, then why the household living space has been reduced?

The family scale that has become smaller may be a reason: supposing that there is no change for the per capita living space, but the family population has reduced, and then it certainly will cause the change of household living space. However, the per capita living space has become smaller at the same time: it was 30 square meters in 2012 but 36 square meters in 2011. Why the per capita living space has become smaller?

In my opinion, urbanization may be the main reason. From the countryside to cities, in terms of living, the most obvious change is that the area has become smaller - in the countryside, most residents have their own houses. But in cities, most residents live in apartments. In 2012, China’s urbanization rate exceeded 50% for the first time, and this means that over half residents live in cities. When more and more people go to cities and live there, naturally it will cause the reduction of the per capita living space.

Nevertheless, the reduction of living space does not mean poorer living condition. The research group of Peking University finds that non-agricultural households generally enjoy better service in all aspects of water, electricity and garbage disposal that are closely related to the living conditions.

At present, the per capita living space of China has been greatly improved, and even can be comparable with that of European and American countries: the per capita living space of the U.S. is 67 square meters, in UK it is 35.4 square meters, in France it is 35.2 square meters, and in Spain it is 25.8 square meters. Comparing with our neighboring countries like Korea and Japan, the per capita living space in our country is much bigger: it is 19.8 square meters in Korea and 19.6 square meters in Japan. Due to the restraint of resources, China may never reach the per capita living space of the U.S., i.e. 67 square meters, but the reduction of living space means that we can enjoy the advantages of aggregation.

Taking Hongkong as an example, up to now, the per capita living space of Hongkong is about 15 square meters. Does it mean that Hongkong is not a livable city? It’s just on the contrary. In 2012 in the survey of “Indexes of Global Livable Cities” made by The Economist, Hongkong ranked the top. In my opinion, the reason why Hongkong is livable, the convenient public transportation and living facilities may be very important factors, and all these can only be achieved in cities with high density population.

When James J. Wang, Professor of the Geography Department of the University of Hong Kong, mentioned a concept of “public transportation in residential areas” in an interview, i.e. bus stations are set inside in apartment complexes instead of stopping outside. Within residential compounds of Hongkong, there are many bus routes, and the distance between a residential compound and a bus stop will not exceed 100 meters at most. But according to the survey result of the Institute of Social Science Survey of Peking University in 2010, the average distance between a non-agricultural household and the nearest bus stop is 0.7 kilometers, and in Province of Liaoning and Shanghai, a bus stop can be found within the distance of 0.5 kilometers when going out.

In this sense, the reduction of per capita living space in recent few years is not a bad thing. On the contrary, this means that we have begun to enjoy the advantages of urbanization aggregation. After all, it is not an easy thing for everybody to enjoy the housing area as wide as that in the countryside.

Originally published on Tencent Dajia Column | 2013-8-9