Medical workers discuss at a health center in Taojia Town of Jiulongpo District, southwest China's Chongqing, Feb. 20, 2019. (Xinhua/Lan Hongguang)

BEIJING, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- More than 85 million women living in rural China have received free cervical cancer screening services by the end of 2018, said a white paper published by the State Council Information Office Thursday.

Free breast cancer screening services were also offered to 20 million rural women by the end of last year, according to the white paper, titled "Equality, Development and Sharing: Progress of Women's Cause in 70 Years Since New China's Founding".

Chinese women's average life expectancy grew to 79.4 years in 2015, increasing 42.7 years from that in 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded.

The maternal mortality rate has fallen 79.4 percent from 88.8 per 100,000 in 1990 to 18.3 per 100,000 in 2018, and the gap between urban and rural areas has been further narrowed, with the ratio of urban/rural maternal mortality decreasing from 1:2.2 in 1990 to 1:1.3 in 2018, it said.

There were 3,080 maternal and childcare institutions, 807 maternity hospitals and nearly 640,000 maternal and childcare workers throughout the country by the end of last year, according to the white paper. ■