Guangdong, China's largest provincial economy, allocated more than 70% of its general public budget spending to public welfare during the country's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), provincial officials said on January 30 at a themed press conference on the province's public welfare initiatives during this period.
Over the past five years, Guangdong's total spending on public welfare reached 6.45 trillion yuan. Education and healthcare are two key areas, with expenditures on the two amounting to 1.99 trillion yuan and 929.2 billion yuan, respectively, Chen Guohuang, director of the Department of Finance in Guangdong Province, said at the press conference.
According to Chen, Guangdong's general public budget revenue has ranked first in China for 35 consecutive years, providing the fiscal capacity to sustain high levels of social spending.
In healthcare, Guangdong was the first province in China to offer free HPV vaccinations to women and to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis, and hepatitis B. Over the past five years, the province's average life expectancy rose from 77.8 years to 80.6 years, according to Liu Yuanliang, Deputy Director of the province's Health Commission.
As China's most populous province, in 2025, Guangdong was the only province with more than one million newborns. In the same year, the province distributed over 11 billion yuan in childcare subsidies, benefiting around 3.5 million infants and young children.
Social security spending has continued to increase alongside broader welfare investments. Zhang Chen, Director of the Department of Civil Affairs, said the province continues to prioritize increases in subsidies for low-income residents, orphans, and people with disabilities.
As one of China's major economic provinces, Guangdong employs a large share of the country's workforce. Xie Zhongbao, Deputy Director of the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Guangdong, said that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the province's total employed population exceeded 70 million, accounting for about one-tenth of the national total.
Public sports infrastructure also expanded as part of the province's social development efforts. According to Zhang Dongjin, Deputy Director of the Guangdong Provincial Sports Bureau, Guangdong built 83 new sports parks during the five-year period under review, bringing the total number of community-level sports parks to more than 3,000. By the end of 2025, the province had about 366,000 sports venues, ranking among the highest in the country.
Reporter | Chen Siyuan
Photo | Zeng Qiang (Nanfang Daily)
