Society
23% Chinese buoy into middle class
By Zuo Likun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-02-02 14:10
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China's middle class is on the rise with 23 percent of the population now claiming to belong and the number continues to rise by one percent a year, according to a demographic research reported on China National Radio Tuesday.
The growth of Chinese middle class has accelerated since the turn of the century, with its proportion leapfrogging eight percentage points since 2001, said Lu Xueyi, a top sociologist and research head of "Demographic Transition of Contemporary China" whose research report was released by the Social Sciences Academic Press recently.
The rapid growth results from a swelling army of professionals in the labor market thanks to China's expanding college education, and intensified but not necessarily balanced wealth accumulation amid the country's economic boom, the report said.
