Incomes up on average but wealth gap a worry
Source: Xinhua |
August 22, 2012, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
HOUSEHOLDS in rural China have seen incomes increase on average over the past three years thanks to migrant work in cities, but the wealth gap in the countryside has almost reached a warning level, a Chinese institute for rural studies said yesterday.
The income of rural households grew 14.13 percent from a year earlier to an average of 38,894.4 yuan (US$6,125) last year, according to a survey by Central China Normal University's Center for China Rural Studies.
The survey covers more than 6,000 rural households.
The institute said in a report that the income growth was fueled by rising wages among farmers who had abandoned rural life to work outside their hometowns, mostly in cities.
Wages paid to migrant workers accounted for 65.7 percent of the total income of rural households, it said.
The nation had 253 million migrant workers by the end of 2011, 10.55 million more than a year earlier, according to official data.
The wealth gap among rural households is widening. The Gini coefficient, which reflects the rich-poor gap, in rural China stood at 0.3949 last year, nearing the warning level of 0.4 set by the United Nations, the institute said.
The index, which measures income distribution on a scale of zero to one, indicates a relatively reasonable income gap if between 0.3 and 0.4. Most scholars believe it is currently between 0.45 and 0.50.
The reason why the gap exists is that those who work as migrant laborers in urban areas earn twice as much as those who grow crops, the institute said.
The income gap, said Xu Yong, chief of the institute, could force more rural residents to abandon farming and leave the countryside.
The income of rural households grew 14.13 percent from a year earlier to an average of 38,894.4 yuan (US$6,125) last year, according to a survey by Central China Normal University's Center for China Rural Studies.
The survey covers more than 6,000 rural households.
The institute said in a report that the income growth was fueled by rising wages among farmers who had abandoned rural life to work outside their hometowns, mostly in cities.
Wages paid to migrant workers accounted for 65.7 percent of the total income of rural households, it said.
The nation had 253 million migrant workers by the end of 2011, 10.55 million more than a year earlier, according to official data.
The wealth gap among rural households is widening. The Gini coefficient, which reflects the rich-poor gap, in rural China stood at 0.3949 last year, nearing the warning level of 0.4 set by the United Nations, the institute said.
The index, which measures income distribution on a scale of zero to one, indicates a relatively reasonable income gap if between 0.3 and 0.4. Most scholars believe it is currently between 0.45 and 0.50.
The reason why the gap exists is that those who work as migrant laborers in urban areas earn twice as much as those who grow crops, the institute said.
The income gap, said Xu Yong, chief of the institute, could force more rural residents to abandon farming and leave the countryside.
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