Wealth gap puts China among world's most unequal nations, survey reveals

China's wealth gap has widened to a level where it is among the world's most unequal nations, a survey has revealed.

China's Gini coefficient, a commonly used measure of inequality, was 0.61 in 2010, the Survey and Research Centre for China Household Finance said, well above what some academics view as the warning line of 0.40.

A figure of 0 would represent perfect equality and 1 total inequality.

"Currently, China's household income gap is huge," said the institute, founded by the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and the Institute of Financial Research, which operates under the People's Bank of China.

"The Gini coefficient is as high as 0.61 - rare in the world," it said.

China's growing wealth gap is a major concern for the authorities, who are keen to avoid public discontent that could lead to social unrest. In a sign of the sensitivity surrounding the issue, the government has not released an official Gini coefficient for the country as a whole for more than a decade, since it put the statistic at 0.412 in 2000.