The most recent survey from the All-China Women’s Federation found some 61 million “left-behind children” across China, who are growing up without one or both parents—a population larger than California and New York combined. Close to 33 percent are raised by their grandparents, another 10.7 percent by other villagers or relatives, and at least 2.06 million, according to the survey, are forced to fend for themselves. It is one of the darker side effects of China’s manufacturing and construction-fueled economic boom, which has created a vast number of low-skill jobs in coastal provinces, luring hundreds of millions of laborers away from their impoverished hometowns.
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