Rural Urban Migration in China (RUMiC)

Due to its rapid industrialization and urbanization over the past three decades, China has experienced the largest rural-to-urban migration in history. Initiated by Prof. Meng Xin (Australian National University) in 2006, RUMiC aims to understand the institutional barriers that restrict rural-to-urban migration and how to improve rural migrants’ living conditions. SDC has conducted RUMiC jointly with Australian National University in 2016 and has carried out this survey independently since 2017.

RUMiC is a longitudinal survey conducted every year, collecting data about migrants’ health, education, employment, social networks, household income and expenditure, housing conditions, and places of origin. The annual sample size consists of 5,000 migrant households living in 15 cities across 9 major provinces with the highest level of rural-to-urban migration (i.e., Guangzhou, Dongguan, Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Chongqing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wuhan, Chengdu, Hefei and Bengbu).

China Household Employment Survey (CHES) 

Jointly conducted by the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, CHES seeks to understand the dynamics of the labor market in China. It records detailed information about individuals' labor market status, employment types, industry affiliation, occupations, wages and fringe benefits, and labor supply, etc. CHES completed four waves of data collection in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. Currently the largest representative survey of China’s labor market, CHES collected information from approximately 40,000 households nationwide in 2017. 

         Longitute Study of Children's Development in Mianzhu (LSCD)

Large-scale rural-urban migration over the past decades has led to the so-called “left-behind children” phenomenon in China. It is estimated that over 6.97 million children were left behind in villages after their parents migrated to cities for work. The LSCD survey seeks to explore how to measure the traits, skills, and preferences that determine important life outcomes for children, understand the development of the cognitive and non-cognitive skills of left-behind children, and examine the efects of early childhood interventions. So far, the SDC has completed four waves in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Professor James J. Heckman acts as an advisor to this survey and helps to develop its research design.  

For more info, please visit the website of the Survey Data Center of IESR: https://sdc-iesr.jnu.edu.cn/wome/main.htm