Special education in China
According to the 2006 census, 82.96 million disabled people live in China, an estimated 6.34% of the overall population. This statistic had a 1.44% increase from the year 1987. Men outnumber women in China’s 1.35 billion population making it no surprise that more than half of the people with disabilities are male. The number of disabled people living in the rural areas of China is 75% of the disabled population, compared to the urban which held 25% of the disabled population. Specifically relating to school-aged population, disabled children at the age between 6-14 reached to 2.46 million, 2.96% of the total disabled population. Less than 3% of China’s disabled population is in the school-aged demographic. Although this statistic is shockingly low, the one child policy contributes to much of the population decreases seen in recent history especially among school-aged children. China categorizes disabilities differently than in other nations, for example China identified 5% of their school-aged population to be in need of special education whereas The United States identified 10% of their school-aged population; this comparison is a result of China not recognizing learning disabilities or disorders such as ADHD to be in need of special services whereas many other nations do.
Educational opportunities for disabled Chinese are lacking, causing elevated poverty and poor living conditions .
Demographics of Asia
The continent of Asia covers 29.4% of the Earth's land area and has a population of around 4.5 billion (), accounting for about 60% of the world population. The combined population of both China and India are estimated to be over 2.7 billion people .
Asian population is projected to grow to 5.26 billion by 2050, or about 54% of projected world population at that time.
Population growth in Asia was close to 1.2% p.a. , with highly disparate rates, many West Asian countries showing growth rates above 2% p.a., and notably Pakistan at 2.4% p.a., offset by a growth rate below 0.5% p.a. in China.