The size of the middle class in China has grown to include 11.9 percent of all employees in the country, according to a recent survey.

China Youth Daily reported on last Friday that Social Sciences Academic Press in Beijing has published the results of a survey on the middle class in China.

Professor Zhou Xiaohong, Department Chair of Sociology Studies at Nanjing University, led a research group called the Social Changes in China and the Urban Middle Class Growth. The researchers surveyed 3,028 people, selected at random, from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Wuhan.

The study group's definition of "middle class" was a person with a monthly income of 5000 yuan (about US$617); with a bachelor degree or above; and who works as a civil servant, company manager, technician or private business owner.

Professor Zhou Xiaohong estimates that the true figure could be anywhere from 11 percent to 19 percent of the population, but could not be more than 20 percent.

The survey also shows what the general public think is the definition of being middle class. When people think of the middle class, they think of the owners of private business, managers of state-run enterprises, civil servants, administrators, and technicians.

On the subject of wealth, more than 30 percent of the interviewees said they were not sure how much money a person should have to be considered middle class, while 21 percent thought the total wealth of a member of the middle class should be half a million yuan (US$61,700), and 19 percent thought it should be in excess of one million yuan.

Zhang Wanli, an associate research fellow from the China Academy of Social Sciences, believes that China's middle class has grown to 13-15 percent of employees since the late 1990s, taking into account general knowledge, prestige of career, type of work, income, expenditure and social influence.

Zhang Wanli said that when the middle class population grows to 30 percent in China, which is an ideal ratio, they could become a driving force for social modernization, stability, strong social values and high levels of consumption.

(CRI September 5, 2005)