To study the quality-of-life level and its differentiation characteristics of elderly people in rural areas of China.

Based on the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study in 2018, we constructed an indicator system for evaluating the quality of life of rural elderly people from four levels: individual, family, society, and policy. The entropy method was used to objectively assign weights and calculate the quality-of-life score. The evaluation results were analyzed from three aspects: population characteristics, spatial correlation, and spatial distribution.

Marital status (F=35.27, P<0.001) and educational level (F=10.80, P<0.001) had a significant impact on the quality of life of rural elderly people. The distribution of quality of life was spatially correlated (I=0.432, P<0.001). There are a total of 16 provinces (accounting for 57.142%) with quality levels in the middle, low, and low-level regions, mainly located in the central and western regions.

More than half of the rural elderly in provinces have a quality of life in areas with a moderate or lower level, exhibiting a positive spatial clustering feature, roughly showing a distribution pattern of high in the east and low in the west. Special attention should be paid to the quality of life of unmarried, widowed, low educated, and central and western provinces.