East China province leads the way in per capita GDP

Zhejiang Province has become the first Chinese province to register a per capita GDP of over 3,000 US dollars.

The province's GDP totaled 1.336 trillion yuan (167 billion U.S. dollars) in 2005 - a per capita GDP of 3,400 U.S. dollars compared to a per capita figure of 2,890 U.S. dollars the previous year.

Fast economic growth in recent years has brought great benefits to the people. By the end of last year, the proportion of urban families with a per capita disposable income lower than 8,000 yuan (about 1,000 U.S. dollars) dropped to 14.4 percent, 30 points lower than in 2000, according to the Zhejiang Provincial Statistics Bureau.

The statistics show that the proportion of families with a per capita income ranging between 8,000 yuan and 20,000 yuan rose to 55.4 percent and the proportion of families with a per capita income higher than 20,000 yuan shot up to 30.5 percent from 3.4 percent in 2000.

Zhejiang Province led the way for the 21st consecutive year in terms of per capita income for local farmers, registering a per capita income of 6,660 yuan.

Currently 9 percent of the province's rural families report a per capita income of less than 2,000 yuan, 19.5 percent report a per capita income between 2,000 yuan and 4,000 yuan, and 40.3 percent report a per capita income between 4,000 yuan and 8,000 yuan. Families with a per capita income of over 8,000 yuan account for 31.1 percent of the total number of rural families in the province.

Statistics also revealed a growing gap between the income of urban and rural residents. The income of urbanites was 2.39 times that of rural residents in 2004, and the figure rose to 2.45 last year.

Source: Xinhua