1% Chinese own 1/3rd of national wealth

About one per cent of Chinese households own one-third of the nation's wealth, a report has said, raising concerns about income inequality in the world's most populous country led by Communist Party of China.

Chinese households on average had a net worth of 439,000 yuan (about $71,000) in 2012, up 17 per cent from the 2010 level, said the study by Peking University on China's livelihood development.

However, income inequality rose rapidly during the period, the report said, as the top one per cent of Chinese households held more than one-third of the nation's wealth, while 25 per cent of households at the bottom owned only 10

per cent of the country's property value.

The inequalities grew as China moved away from the stringent socialist ideology of Communist Party founder Mao Zedong to more market oriented reforms in the last three decades which generated vast wealth but widened the rich-poor divide.

The researchers who conducted their study based their main analysis on 2012 data from the China Family Panel Studies, a large-scale survey project conducted by the institute.

The report showed about 74.7 per cent of Chinese household wealth came from owning real estate.