This book is a quantitative study of families in China that focuses specifically on the family burden coefficient. The aim is to provide a simple and accurate calculus for describing the level of family burden and thus provide guidance for policy.

The topics explored include changes in China’s family and social policy, the complexity of definitions and concepts relating to the family, the theoretical and practical significance of the family burden coefficient, how that coefficient is measured based on population size at different scales, how measurement can be improved by factoring in types of family burden, and how families can be classified according to their burden profile. The relationship between the family life cycle and family burden coefficient is also addressed before policy solutions are discussed.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology, Chinese studies, and family studies.