Chinese people felt less safe for the third consecutive year in 2005, the China Youth Daily reported today.

The scores of residents' safety concerns were 3.53 last year, lower than 2004's 3.62 and 2003's 3.66, the newspaper said, citing the research of a Beijing-based Horizon Group surveying 4,128 people from ages 18 to 60 years old.

The survey said rural residents felt that their safety situation was deteriorating, and was weighing down the total reading. However, urban residents felt safer and resulted in the biggest gap between rural and urban residents in the past four years.
The increase in publicly released information escalated the number of negative reports, which in turn affected people's mentalities, the Daily said, citing Wang Taiyuan, a professor at the Chinese People's Public Security University, founded in 1948, considered the top college in the public security system.

Last year China declassified the death tolls of natural disasters, giving people easier access to such information, Wang said, but believed that it was a mere progression of social development.

The widening wealth gap between urban and rural areas was considered another reason for the increasing social conflicts and crimes. Wang said the unbalanced development resulted in people's sensitivity to social security.

Yan Ye, a researcher at the China Academy of Social Sciences, said the relaxed public security management in rural areas was part of the reason for the swelling gang violence and increased crime rates.

The lack of social security systems also boosted the worries of the rural residents, as rural areas are on the way to calmer market economies, he said.