At the end of 2006, 186.49 million people participated in basic old-age insurance programs, a year-on-year increase of 11.62 million. Of this total, 140.28 million were staff and workers, and 46.21 million were retirees. A total of 157.37 million people participated in urban basic health insurance programs, an increase of 19.54 million, of whom 115.87 million were staff and workers, 41.50 million were retirees. About 111.87 million people participated in unemployment insurance programs, an increase of 5.39 million. Some 102.35 million people participated in work accident insurance programs, an increase of 17.57 million, of which 25.38 million were migrant workers coming from the rural areas, an increase of 12.86 million. Some 64.46 million people participated in maternity insurance programs, an increase of 10.38 million.

SOS Children's Villages are social welfare organizations for orphans, with each family having one single woman as "mother." Pictured is a "mother" making dumplings, or jiaozi, with an orphan in a Beijing village.

The total income of various social security funds reached 851.7 billion yuan and the total expenditure stood at 658.3 billion yuan. The number of people receiving unemployment insurance payments stood at 3.27 million. Some 22.41 million urban residents received government minimum living allowance, or 67,000 more than the previous year. About 15.09 rural residents received government minimum living allowance, an increase of 6.84 million.

Social welfare institutions of various types provided 1.75 million beds by the end of 2006, accommodating 1.36 million inmates. There were 120,000 community service facilities in urban areas, including 9,817 comprehensive community service centers. Some 49.6 billion yuan worth of social welfare lottery tickets were sold, raising 17.4 billion yuan in social welfare funds. Another 3.5 billion yuan were received from direct donations.

Trials to fully fund personal accounts for basic old-age insurance of enterprise employees were expanded to eight more province-level localities on the basis of the pilot project in three provinces of northeast China. After years of effort, the work of incorporating the basic cost of living allowances for workers laid off from state-owned enterprises into the unemployment insurance system was mostly completed. Basic pension benefits for retired enterprise employees were increased. The coverage of the social security system was further expanded, revenue from social security premiums increased, and the management of social security funds was strengthened. The basic framework of a social assistance system for both urban and rural residents was set up, and charity programs continued to grow. The Central Government spent 13.6 billion yuan on minimum living allowances for urban residents, 2.4 billion yuan more than the previous year. Local governments also increased their spending on these allowances to varying degrees.