Abstract: For a long time,China's information consumption policy focused on promoting information consumption growth,but neglected the improvement of information consumption inequality between different groups. Based on a general equilibrium analysis framework,this paper constructs welfare effect measurement model,and use the per-capita information consumption data of China's rural residents from 1993 to 2016 to calculate and compare the welfare effect of information consumption growth and information consumption equality at national and regional levels. The findings are as follows:firstly,both the information consumption growth and information consumption equality have significant welfare effects. Under reasonable parameter values,the expansion of consumption information scale is equivalent to an annual subsidy 16.21% to 285.23% of information products or services,and the realization of absolute information consumption equality is equivalent to an annual subsidy 7.83% to 294.02% of consumer products or services. Secondly,narrowing the digital divide is a new vision that can't be ignored to improve the welfare of rural residents. In most cases,the welfare effect of information consumption equality exceeds the welfare effect of information consumption growth in the range of possible parameters,and the welfare effect of representative rural residents' information consumption growth is only 1/3 of the welfare effect of information consumption equality. Thirdly,there are significant regional differences between the welfare effect of information consumption growth and information consumption equality. Therefore,in the implementation of the "Internet plus" and rural revitalization strategy,the information consumption policy should not only pay the equal attention to the growth and equality,but also according to local conditions,so as to realize the full and balanced development of the information consumption.