(ECNS) -- China's high-income earners are least confident in further raising their living standards, a new survey on development confidence showed.
The survey results for 2015, released by Renmin University of China, showed that most respondents had strong confidence in the country's future development, scoring 80.9 points out of 100, slightly up from last year's 80.6. However, the public's confidence in health, education, living standards and social environment fell slightly this year.
With regard to overall confidence toward life, those surveyed gave a score of 63.9 points. Satisfaction over living standards scored 70.4, higher than medical care and education. The respondents said they were confident in further improving living conditions, with a score of 74.8, and 22.8 percent gave a full score of 100.
However, those who earned a monthly income above 10,000 yuan ($1,540) had the lowest confidence in raising living standards, with a score of 68.8.
The survey also indicated highly educated people had weaker confidence in social development, and that urban residents were less confident than their rural counterparts.
Those in the age group of 23-30 showed the weakest confidence in development, followed by the age group of 31-40.
The score for living costs was 78.6 this year, and most of the respondents said their living costs fell slightly compared to last year, according to the survey.
The respondents were most concerned with problems of food safety (14.5 percent), medical care (12.8 percent) and children's education (11.9 percent).
In addition, nearly 57 percent said there was an extremely wide gap between the rich and the poor in China, while respondents' confidence in housing price adjustments in the coming years dropped to a low level this year, with a score of only 54.8.
