Ethnic minorities made up approximately 9% of the population in the People’s
Republic of China in the mid-1990s.1 As a proportion, this is not a very large
number. For China’s population, however, 9% yields a figure of more than
100 million persons, a number greater than the populations of every single
European Union country. It is thus highly warranted to ask how the minority
population in China is faring. When addressing this question, it is, furthermore,
natural to compare the income situation of the minority population in China
with that of the majority.
China is experiencing rapid change owing to industrialization and the
transition in the economic system toward a market economy. As the economy
has expanded, living standards have risen for many. Have the incomes of
people belonging to the minority nationalities in rural China kept pace with
those of the majority? Many observers answer in the negative, but relevant
figures for supporting this have not been obtainable.
A variety of circumstances may explain why ethnic minorities are worse
off than the majority in rural China; these may also provide insight into why
the minority-majority income gap has widened to the extent that it has. For
example, there are differences in the stock of human capital and in household
characteristics between the two populations. One important observation is that
the minority and majority populations have different spatial distributions; most
minority persons live in the western part of China, often at high altitudes
where economic growth has been slower partially because of the physically
unfavorable conditions. The second question this article might address, then,
is why the minority-majority gap has widened.