As regards living standards attempts were made to improve

Last updated: 10/19/2023

As regards living standards attempts were made to improve housing conditions in towns and real wages and consumption in urban areas increased However the rural economy was largely stagnant during the 1950s in large part because of the transfer of funds from agriculture to finance industrialisation and thus there were no significant improvements in most rural areas Despite this inequality between urban and rural areas as regards living standards and the fact that China in 1949 had had extremely limited financial resources to spend on providing anything more than basic health services life expectancy nonetheless increased from 36 years in 1949 to 57 by the mid 1950s 1949