The 1996-1997 China Living Standards Survey provides individual level, household level, and village level socio-economic data from  two provinces in the northeast area of the country - Heibei and Liaoning.  Five villages from each of three sample counties of each province were selected.  Approximately 780 farm households were selected from a total of 31 sample villages.  The survey was carried out by the Research Centre for Rural Economy of the Ministry of Agriculture with the technical and financial assistance of the World Bank and researchers from the University of Toronto and Stanford University/University of California at Davis.

The information for the LSMS survey was collected using two questionnaires.  The household questionnaire collects information at both the household and individual levels.   Information collected at the household level includes housing, agricultural land, agricultural management,  non-farm enterprises, household expenditures, income, and loans and savings.   Information collected at the individual level includes demographics, education, and occupation.  The second questionnaire is the village questionnaire that includes information on basic information on the village, land tenure system, markets, village owned enterprises, rural credit market, seed market, maize technology, chemical fertilizer market, and the village leader.

For the best use of the database, it is highly recommended that users read all of the documentation that is provided for using the data (see below "Documentation for the China Living Standards Survey").

Data files and necessary supporting documentation can be downloaded from the Net. To obtain the data, first read the sections describing the formats of the data and documentation. Download the documentation, then fill in the 'Data Use Agreement Form', and finally download the data.

• Description of Document Formats

  General description of PDF and PostScript formats

• Description of Data Formats

  General description of ASCII, Stata, and SAS portable data formats

• Documentation for the China Living Standards Survey

  Questionnaires, Codebooks, and other survey documents are available in PDF format for downloading.

• Data Agreement Form

  The form states that downloading the data obligates you to cite the source of the data and to send copies of papers to the LSMS Division of the World Bank. The form also requires you to state your name, address, and intended use of the data. Once you have submitted the form, you will be sent to a page containing links to the data files. If your browser doesn't support forms (or fails to forward you to the data page upon completing the form), contact LSMS and you will receive instructions on how to progress to the page with the data files.

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