Household ownership of MCs in China

I saw this interesting table on a BBC news story:

Attachment 4617

Household ownership of motorcycles appears to be growing, both in urban and rural settings.

Rural households appear to prefer a motorcycle over a washing machine, refrigerator or an air conditioner.

Twice as many urban households own motorcycles than cars.

Despite a relatively high proportion of rural households having a motorcycle (56.6%), few have computers (7.5%). I guess that might help explain why few farmers are active on MyChinaMoto!

The original BBC article can be found here.

There is some contradiction in the article, from 2000 to 2009 the percentages have doubled on percentages of rural home owning all the goods listed. Rural households have had a marked increase in ownership of goods. Only half as many own a washer compared to those living in the urban areas. However nearly twice as many then the same rural homes ten years earlier. If this all demonstrate income disparity then it also shows a remarkable growth in rural purchasing power they are moving towards equilibrium at a rate of 50% gains per ten years.

Its disturbing to think that 5% of those living in the cities do not have a refrigerator. Also the 10% ownership of automobiles is alarming considering all the concern about traffic and pollution. What happens if that 200% gain continues over the next ten years?