Chongqing Unveils 15th Five-Year Social Development Plan, Targets 3.25 Million New Urban Jobs and 500,000 More Housing Beneficiaries

Chongqing—Chongqing has issued its 15th Five-Year Social Development Plan (2026–2030), setting out an ambitious agenda to expand employment, improve public services and narrow the urban-rural gap over the next five years, officials announced at a press conference on September 21.

The plan, formally titled the Chongqing Municipal 15th Five-Year Social Development Plan (2026–2030), is the first comprehensive, cross-sector special plan of its kind for social development in the southwestern Chinese municipality. It sets 23 quantitative targets across four categories and deploys key tasks in eight sections and 21 specialized columns.

"Chinese modernization puts the people's livelihood first," said Fu Qianqian, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, who introduced the plan at the briefing. She noted that over the past five years, livelihood spending remained at about 80 percent of the city's fiscal expenditure, 3.64 million new urban jobs were created, and average life expectancy rose to 79.85 years.

Chongqing's per capita disposable income reached 41,580 yuan (approximately US$5,750) in 2025, growing at an average annual rate of 6.2 percent, outpacing the national average, while the urban-rural income ratio narrowed to 2.21:1.

Four Priorities: Fairness, Balance, Inclusiveness, Accessibility

The plan is organized around four strategic priorities: promoting fairness through social safety nets, optimizing balance between urban and rural areas, expanding inclusive public services, and enhancing accessibility at the community level.

On social security, Chongqing aims to raise the share of workers covered by employee pension insurance from 58 percent to 60 percent and maintain basic medical insurance coverage at no less than 95 percent by 2030. The city will also deepen reforms integrating "material assistance with service assistance" and expand digital tools for proactively identifying residents in need. 

On urban-rural balance, the plan targets reducing the urban-rural per capita disposable income ratio from 2.21:1 to 2.1:1 by 2030. The city will channel high-quality education and elderly care resources to grassroots and rural areas through cross-regional education consortia and regional elderly care centers. The goal is for all compulsory education districts to achieve balanced and high-quality development by 2030, up from roughly a quarter today.

On inclusiveness, Chongqing will expand access to affordable childcare and elderly care. The enrollment rate for children aged 0–3 in nursery services is set to rise by 6 percentage points, while the share of nursing-care beds in elderly care institutions will reach 80 percent. 

On accessibility, the city will expand its "15-minute high-quality life service circles", walkable neighborhoods where residents can access groceries, healthcare, parks, employment support and cultural facilities within a quarter-hour from home. The city has already built 141 such circles, covering 532 communities and benefiting 6.06 million people. It will also implement actions to raise incomes, with per capita disposable income growth kept in step with GDP growth.

Employment: 3.25 Million New Urban Jobs

Qu Kexun, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, said the city will create more than 3.25 million new urban jobs over the next five years, with the surveyed urban unemployment rate kept below 5.5 percent.

Chongqing will embed employment priorities into its entire economic development chain through an employment impact assessment mechanism. It will leverage artificial intelligence and big data to predict human resource gaps, and support AI-enabled entrepreneurship to expand opportunities in emerging sectors. 

For young people, the city will advance its action plan to attract one million young professionals and graduates, offering subsidies for county-level and manufacturing-sector employment, along with internship and career experience programs. For rural migrant workers, it will provide integrated services covering employment, skills training, and rights protection, supported by dedicated employment subsidies.

At the community level, employment services will be integrated into 15-minute life service circles, allowing residents to access job placement, skills training, social insurance and unemployment assistance just steps from home. "Employment links millions of households to the pulse of the economy," Qu said. "We want to make the path to employment steadier and the options broader."

Education: Resources to Follow Students 

Wu Pingwei, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Education Commission, addressed the challenge posed by shifting demographics, rising demand for school places in urban areas alongside shrinking enrollment in rural schools.

"Our core approach is to let resources follow students, demand and development," Wu said. The city will link population forecasts, school-place warnings and layout adjustments, building or expanding schools in high-demand urban areas while cautiously consolidating very small rural schools and improving boarding facilities, school bus services and transport subsidies. 

Chongqing aims to raise the coverage of basic education development communities, a system pairing strong schools with weaker ones, to over 95 percent, up from the current 82 percent. The city will also deepen the "county-managed, school-employed" reform to enable teacher mobility across schools, and repurpose idle rural school buildings for community uses such as elderly canteens and teacher training centers.

Healthcare: A Full Life-Cycle Approach

Hu Yufeng, deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Health Commission, outlined a dual strategy: channeling quality medical resources downward while stitching fragmented health services into a continuous, life-cycle system.

The city has already established two national regional medical centers for children's and mental health, and built 81 tightly integrated county medical communities. The share of primary-level medical treatment has risen to 54.38 percent.

Under the new plan, Chongqing will upgrade primary healthcare facilities, deepen the development of county medical communities with shared centers for medical imaging, testing and pathology, and promote the "primary examination, higher-level diagnosis, mutual recognition of results" model to eliminate duplicate testing. Family doctor services will be expanded, with hospital appointments opened to grassroots referrals.

Across the life cycle, the city will roll out health promotion actions for children and adolescents covering weight, vision, mental health, bones and oral health. For working-age adults, it will expand occupational health protection and free breast and cervical cancer screenings. For older adults, more than 90 percent of secondary and above general hospitals will have geriatric departments by 2030.

Chongqing and neighboring Sichuan province will also expand mutual recognition of electronic health cards and examination results to 301 items, enabling cross-provincial medical services with a single card.

Housing: 500,000 More People to Be Covered

Wang Shenchuan, chief engineer of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said the city will extend housing security to an additional 500,000 people over the next five years through a graduated system of "one bed, one room, one apartment."

For young people just arriving in the city, dormitory-style affordable rental housing will be placed near core business districts and industrial parks. For families with stable employment, small apartments will be offered at below-market rents. For working families seeking to settle permanently, sale-type affordable housing will be supplied under a "five good" standard — good location, good supporting facilities, good quality, good service and good price. 

Existing public rental housing communities will be upgraded with elderly care, childcare, community canteens, family doctor services and renovated utilities. "The mountain city is not only about the spirit of striving uphill and downhill," Wang said. "It is also about the warmth of thousands of lit homes. We are here to hold an umbrella for every striver."

Elderly Care: An Age-Friendly Society

Xu Songqiang, a first-level inspector at the Chongqing Municipal Civil Affairs Bureau, said the city will build an age-friendly society through three dimensions: service, co-governance and rights protection.

Chongqing will accelerate a four-tier elderly care service network, expand meal assistance to cover 100 percent of urban streets and 50 percent of rural townships, and develop silver economy complexes. In rural areas, mutual-aid elderly care models will be promoted, including "Yuxiang Mutual Aid Villages" demonstration sites.

To support older people's social participation, the city will expand the "Silver Age Action" and develop community-level elderly associations, targeting basic full coverage by 2030. For rights protection, it will revise the Regulations on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Older Persons in Chongqing, improve legal aid channels and pilot advance guardianship arrangements. It will also crack down on health product fraud, illegal fundraising and telecom fraud targeting older people.

Cross-Department Coordination

Fu Qianqian noted that more than 10 departments and units participated in drafting the plan, and coordination will be key to translating its ambitions into results. The city will align social development planning with specialized plans in education, health and civil affairs, and use annual livelihood projects as implementation vehicles. It will also study a nap-in-lying-position program for primary and secondary school students. 

"Livelihood matters are never small; every branch and leaf reflects care," Fu said. "We will work to turn the policy value of this plan into people's real sense of happiness."

The press conference was the 18th in the series "Starting the 15th Five-Year Plan: Building a Modern New Chongqing." Officials from the development and reform, education, civil affairs, human resources and social security, housing, and health commissions attended and took questions from journalists.