Middle-income earners make up 35 per cent of the urban population in southern China's Guangdong Province, according to a report released by the Guangdong Provincial Statistics Bureau.

The result, coming from a survey done in 2003, is based on a definition that middle income people refer to those who have 12,000 yuan (US$1,450) to 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) as annual disposable income. The survey sample was composed of 1,600 families across the province.

The Engel coefficient, an index measuring the proportion spent on food of the total consumption expenses and reflecting people's living standard, came between 30 per cent to 39 per cent in the middle income group in the survey.

The result has come after central authorities set the goal for the first time in 2002 of expanding the middle income group in a bid 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 per cent 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 is the main source of income among these people, making up 90 per cent, 85 per cent and 86 per cent 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 of the families in the three sub-groups ranged from 59 per cent to 64 per cent, compared with the 52 per cent 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 consumption spending by the group ranged from 12,081 yuan (US$1,456) to 18,794 yuan (US$2,264), compared with 9,636 yuan (US$1,160) for the urban average.

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

Per capita housing space of the group was more than 32 square metres, with more than 86 per cent of the families of the group owning their property rights.

Editor: Olivia