Residents live an increasingly better life in Wuxi

Residents in Wuxi, East China's Jiangsu province, has lived an increasingly better life over the past decade, authorities said at a news conference held on Sept 28.

From 2012 to 2021, the per capita disposal income of urban residents increased from 35,125 yuan ($4,864.71) to 70,483 yuan, an annual increase of 8 percent while that of rural residents increased from 18,187 yuan to 39,623 yuan, a 9 percent annual increase.

The ratio of urban to rural residents' income narrowed from 1.93 in 2012 to 1.78 in 2021, lower than the provincial and national averages.

In addition, the average life expectancy in Wuxi increased to 83.42 in 2021.

All this can be attributed to authorities' efforts to create jobs and improve people's livelihoods.

Over the past decade, the number of employed persons in the city increased from 3.97 million to nearly 4.19 million and the registered unemployment rate in urban areas has been kept under 2.5 percent, lower than the provincial and national averages.

Liangxi district in Wuxi has completed 186 projects to improve local residents' livelihoods. This year, the district plans to invest about 2 billion yuan to renovate 84 old residential communities and in 2023 it will renovate 79 more.

Wuxi has also improved its public services over the past 10 years.

Currently, the city is home to 168 elder care institutions and over 1,100 home-based elder care service suppliers.

It has also transformed more than 6,400 houses to make them more comfortable for the elderly, offered over 220,000 senior residents door-to-door services, and issued 1 billion yuan in subsidies to senior residents.

In 2021, Wuxi set aside 30.09 billion yuan for education and was home to 1,063 schools, increases of 100.3 percent and 60.8 percent respectively over the figures of 10 years ago.