Assessing willingness to pay for upgrading toilets in rural areas of Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia, China

Unsanitary toilets are recognized worldwide as a threat to ground water and public health. In this research, we investigated villagers’ willingness to pay to upgrade toilets in Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia. The study was based on data from 558 questionnaires collected in December 2017 and January 2018. The villages and villagers were randomly chosen. We observed that 42% of the respondents were willing to pay to upgrade toilets, and the key factors that affected willingness were dissemination, concern, gender, living time, and satisfaction. In addition, villagers who lived with children were more sensitive to pollution, especially water pollution. These findings could help the Chinese government’s toilet revolution mission succeed by identifying and targeting villagers with high willingness.