Today, family is still the most important unit of society. The family is also an important economic unit. About 74 percent of the Chinese population lives in rural areas, where the father is, most of the time, the head of the household.
Land, the main form of wealth, is divided equally among all the landowner`s surviving sons when he dies. As the Chinese population grew, the landholding became smaller and smaller, and many people were very poor. In the first half of the 20th century, family as a social unit came under severe stress. Rural conditions were bad, income was low and food was often scarce.
But after the revolution in 1949, rural conditions stabilized. Health care improved a lot, but living conditions still are better today than they were in former times.
Unlike rural families, the families in urban society are much smaller, often composed only of parents and children. Since both parents work, children are left in day-care centers or schools. Sometimes couples are split up, because their work units are not close together. The husband and wife may see each other only rarely. Despite such problems, family life for most people in the cities is stable, and family life continues to be important for both parents and children.