Middle-income earners make up 35 percent of the urban population in Guangdong, according to a report released by the provincial statistics bureau.

The result of a survey conducted in 2003, the figure is based on a definition that middle-income earners refer to people whose disposable income is between 12,000 yuan (US$1,450) and 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) a year. The survey sample was collected from 1,600 families across the province.

The Engel coefficient, an index measuring the proportion of the total spent on food and reflecting living standards, was calculated between 30 to 39 percent for the middle-income group.

The result comes after central authorities set a goal in 2002 to expand the middle-income group to build an all-round, well-off society by 2020. The definition of a middle-income group, however, varies among scholars and the media, says the report.

To realize a well-off society in Guangdong, the middle-income population needs to account for more than 50 percent of the total, it says. The group in the survey is further divided into three sub-groups according to their income levels.

The survey found salary was the main source of income for these people, making up 90 percent, 85 percent and 86 percent of their income in the three sub-groups.

The middle-income group in Guangdong was also characterized by a small family size and relatively high employment rate. The employment rate for families in the three sub-groups ranged from 59 percent to 64 percent, compared with the 52 percent average urban family employment rate.

People in this group were mostly employed by the government, government-subsidized institutions, research institutions and relatively well-performing State owned enterprises.

Annual per capita bank deposits by the group ranged between 3,778 yuan (US$455) and 10,735 yuan (US$1,293), compared with the average 3,844 yuan (US$463) for the entire urban population in the province.

Annual per capita spending by the group ranged from 12,081 yuan to 18,794 yuan, compared with 9,636 yuan for the urban average.

The survey found that spending on entertainment and tourism in this group was higher than the urban average.

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er capita housing space of the group was more than 32 square meters, with more than 86 percent of the families owning their properties.

(Shenzhen Daily/Agencies January 18, 2005)