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Published on December 28, 2007

Only 12.7 per cent of a poll conducted by China Youth Daily and Sina.com think they are living a middle-class life.

The poll - entitled "Who will become the middle class in 10 years?" - found that 83 per cent of the 7,313 people interviewed think a typical middle-class Chinese needs to have a good and steady income, a house and a car.

Nearly 70 per cent think the middle class needs higher education and good manners. About 60 per cent think a decent profession is a crucial feature that defines the middle class.

The survey follows a similar study released earlier this month by HSBC, Fudan University and MasterCard Worldwide.

That survey, which interviewed 1,736 people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from February to May, researched the spending patterns of the country's increasingly affluent middle class.

It found that the number of middle-class consumers in the country was expected to nearly triple to 100 million in the 10 years from 2006.

A Chinese middle-class person is defined by the survey as someone whose annual income ranges from US$7,500 (Bt253,000) to $25,000 and who is aged between 20 and 49.

However, the latest survey found that only 2.2 per cent of respondents agreed with that definition.

Still, nearly half of the respondents think they are very likely to join the middle class in 10 years.

More than 30 per cent of those surveyed chose investment and finance as the best paths to becoming middle class.

Nearly 20 per cent think a good combination of social networks and resources will make people richer and 15 per cent believe in diligence at work.

The speed at which people join the middle class varies between professions.

The survey found Chinese think those in the science and technology and IT industries are the quickest to get rich, followed by those in the banking, finance and investment industries.

China Daily

Asia News Network

BEIJING