China is expanding access to healthcare, fitness and preventive services as it works toward a healthier future under its new five-year health plan.
Staying healthy is becoming easier for many people in China. One sign of that change is where people exercise.
According to China’s latest national fitness survey, 90.4% of adults now have access to sports facilities within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. Community “15-minute fitness circles” have been largely established across the country, making exercise more convenient and accessible.
The findings come as China moves into the next phase of its Healthy China initiative. On June 29th, the State Council approved the National Health Plan for the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The new plan focuses on improving public health over the next five years.
The plan builds on broader changes that have taken shape in recent years. Besides expanding medical services, it places greater emphasis on disease prevention, healthy lifestyles and community-based healthcare.
Primary healthcare has continued to grow. The number of primary healthcare institutions increased from 882,000 in 2009 to 1.055 million in 2025, accounting for more than 95% of all medical and health institutions nationwide. Authorities are also improving the distribution of these facilities in response to population changes. Meanwhile, tightly integrated county-level medical communities now cover 2,199 counties, with more than 70,000 staff from county hospitals working in primary healthcare institutions. More than 90% of these counties have established remote diagnostic centres for services such as medical imaging and electrocardiograms.
Mental health services are expanding as well. China’s 12356 psychological assistance hotline is now available in every prefecture-level city, with busy calls automatically transferred to improve access. So far, the hotline has answered more than 1.6 million calls and successfully intervened in more than 10,000 crisis cases.
At the same time, China is strengthening prevention and long-term health management. More than 5,500 hospitals have voluntarily opened weight management clinics as part of the national “Weight Management Year” campaign. The country is also exploring a full-cycle health management model for chronic diseases, covering prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation. So far, 578 national chronic disease prevention and control demonstration zones have been established, with the total expected to reach 820 by 2035.
Children’s healthcare has also improved. Today, 90% of primary healthcare institutions and 98% of village clinics can provide basic paediatric services, and all are included in the country’s basic medical insurance system. More than 3,000 medical institutions have become child-friendly hospitals. By 2030, more than 90% of maternal and child healthcare institutions, children’s hospitals and paediatric departments in general hospitals are expected to meet child-friendly standards.
Public awareness of healthy living is also rising. In 2025, China’s health literacy rate reached 33.69%, up 1.82 percentage points from the previous year. Meanwhile, 38.52% of people aged seven and above reported exercising regularly, while 69.1% said they took part in physical activity at least once a week.
Looking ahead, the newly approved plan sets out a series of measurable goals. The headline target is to raise average life expectancy to 80 years, up from 79.25 years in 2025. Other targets focus on expanding healthcare capacity and promoting healthier lifestyles. They include increasing the share of nursing beds in eldercare institutions to 73%, expanding the healthcare workforce to 3.7 licensed physicians and 5.1 registered nurses per 1,000 people, raising the proportion of people who exercise regularly to around 40%, and reducing premature deaths from major chronic diseases to below 13%.
Taken together, these targets point to the next stage of Healthy China. The focus is not only on providing healthcare when people are sick, but also on making healthy living easier to achieve in everyday life.
Written by Ronnie Yu, Charts created by Di Wang.
If you liked this article, why not read: Growth Beyond the Numbers in China’s Ethnic Autonomous Regions
