If, like many Ouch readers, you were fascinated by the series of One eye on China articles by Stephen Hallett, which we ran on the site last year, then you might be interested to know the latest figures that have been published concerning the number of disabled people in the world's most populous nation.

China's National Statistics Bureau conducted the survey in April and May 2006, across all the country's regions and territories, and it revealed that there are close on 83 million disabled people in China, accounting for 6.34 per cent of the country's population. More than 75 per cent of them, or just over 62 million, live in rural areas.

Perhaps the key figures from the survey are those showing that China's disabled people are, by and large, not financially independent, with a lower than average employment rate. In urban areas, only 2.97 million disabled people are employed compared with 4.7 million disabled people of working age who are not in employment. A significant percentage of disabled people across both urban and rural areas were on benefits or had received some form of government relief. The good news, however, is that since the survey was first conducted back in 1987, many more disabled people are getting access to education.

You can find more details in the country's China Daily newspaper.