[Distribution of the handicapped in China]

The first national sampling survey of the handicapped was conducted on April 1, 1987 in the mainland of China's 29 provinces, autonomous regions or municipalities. The present survey adopted the probability proportion sampling method. 369,816 households and 1,579,343 persons were surveyed in the whole country. This is about 1.5% of the total national population. The results showed that 77,345 persons have one or more of the following handicaps: visual, auditory or linguistic defects; mental retardation; handicaps from physical deformity or mental disorders. This yielded a handicap rate of 48.9%. Among these, 34,444 or 21.8% have auditory and linguistic handicaps, 20,022 or 12.7% have intelligence handicaps, 15,923 or 10.1% have visual defects, 14, 467 or 9.2% have physical deformities and 3,907 or 2.5% have handicaps due to mental disorders. From the results of this sampling survey, the total number of the handicapped in the whole country may be estimated to be 51.64 million. Therefore, it is an urgent task to reduce the prevalence of the handicapped by efficient preventive work.