7. Improved medical services

A nurse records patients' conditions at an intensive care unit in a hospital in Rong'an county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, May 12, 2017. [Photo/Asianewsphoto.com]

By the end of 2016, China had 983,000 medical and health institutions nationwide, which included 29,000 hospitals, an increase of 6,000 from 2012. It had 8.45 million medical personnel, up 1.78 million from 2012. The number of beds in medical and health institutions rose from 4.24 to 5.27 per 1,000 people.

The average life expectancy grew from 74.83 years in 2010 to 76.34 in 2015. The infant mortality rate declined from 10.3 per 1,000 in 2012 to 8.1 per 1,000 in 2015. The maternal mortality rate dropped from 24.5 per 100,000 to 20.1 per 100,000.

The sports industry boomed. The added value of the sports industry totaled 549.4 billion yuan in 2015, accounting for 0.8 percent of the GDP.