ABSTRACT
China’s middle-income group has undergone dramatic changes during its rapidly changing social environment, and its ability to play the role of “stabilizer”, as the middle-income groups in Western society do, remains questionable. This chapter looks at the changes in the middle-income group that occurred during China’s rapid economic growth from the past decade and analyzes the income distribution and educational structure changes among the Chinese population in order to further discuss future development trends. It is apparent that increasing the proportion of labor compensation to Gross Domestic Product is not only a prerequisite for expanding the middle-income group, but also an important condition for maintaining social equity. Using the relative income standard, the chapter divides the population of each year into a low-income group, low-middle-income group, upper-middle-income group and high-income group. It analyzes the middle-income group based on differences in household registration structure, income structure, and educational structure.
