The ratio of income earned by urbanites to that of rural residents is about 5.2, according to The Urban Blue Book: China City Development Report No. 5 released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.

The ratio of urbanites' disposable income to rural residents' net income reached 3.13 last year. The figure for income gap is about 26 percent higher than that of 1997 and 68 percent higher than that of 1985, it said, adding it far exceeded figures of the same kind in many foreign countries. As about 40 percent of farmers' net income was used to purchase chemical fertilizer, pesticide, seeds and other means of production, deducting these expenses, China's urban income was about 5.2 times that of the countryside, said the report.

The Urban Blue Book also noted that the number of urbanites has surpassed the number of rural residents in China, with the urbanization rate reaching 51.27 percent, a significant change in the country's social structure which ushers in an era of "city-based society."

據新華社報道，中國社會科學院周二發布的《中國城市發展報告（2012）》中指出，目前城鄉居民收入實際差距將高達5.2倍左右。

報告稱，去年，全國城鎮居民人均可支配收入與農村居民人均純收入之比高達3.13，比1997年高26.2%，比1985年高68.3%，更遠高于絕大部分國家的水平。考慮到農村居民純收入中約有40%用于購買化肥、農藥、種子等生產資料，如果扣除這部分支出，目前城鄉居民收入實際差距將高達5.2倍左右。

藍皮書還指出，2011年，中國城鎮常住人口超過了農村常住人口，城鎮化率達到了51.27%。這表明中國已經結束了以鄉村型社會為主體的時代，開始進入到“以城市型社會為主體的”新的城市時代。