Rich-poor divide is serious, according to a study.

About 90 per cent of Chinese believe the polarization between the rich and poor is "serious" in China, according to a survey conducted by China Youth Daily.

And more than 80 per cent of the respondents surveyed said something must be done to narrow the expanding gap between the rich and poor, while 14.1 per cent said it was unnecessary.

The polarization has aroused wide concern among the public in recent years.

The State Development and Reform Commission said the Gini Coefficient, a measure of income inequality, had reached 0.47 for China, up from 0.29 two decades ago.

Usually, a country with a ratio exceeding 0.4 is warned to pay more attention to the inequality issue.

To find out the people's view, the survey covered 10,250 respondents, between the ages of 20 and 30 with a college education and a monthly salary between 1,000 and 3,000 yuan.

Surprisingly, most disagreed with the view of experts who claim the urban-rural disparity is causing the widening gap.

More than 70 per cent of the respondents believed that "the group of special interests" is the prime reason for the polarization.

Followed by "people in power" 68 per cent, and "bosses" 50 per cent.

Another unexpected finding almost all agreed that a good educational background and knowledge were not the decisive factors in gaining wealth.

About 95 per cent said rich people are not necessarily those who are able to speak English or have a college education.

Today in China, rich people, accounting¹ for 10 per cent of the population, control 45 per cent of the total social fortune, and poor people, also 10 per cent of the population, only control 1.4 per cent, according to an investigation² published by the National Bureau of Statistics last June.