The per capita annual income of peasant farmers living on the outskirts of China's largest city Shanghai climbed 10.4 percent to 9,200 yuan (US$1,180) last year, 2.5 times the national average, vice mayor Hu Yanzhao said Thursday.

But the income growth is not necessarily related to farming, as more than half of the farmers have taken up non-agricultural jobs and higher rents in Shanghai's rural counties and districts and proceeds from land transfers also helped diversify their earnings, he said.

The municipal government has been working to improve the living conditions of the rural population with a better social welfare system, including pension, medical insurance and funds for education and poverty relief as well as that for the handicapped and low-income earners.

By the end of last year, 99 percent of Shanghai's 3 million farmers had been protected by diverse medical insurance schemes and 240,000 senior citizens had received pensions, he said.

But the income gap between urban and rural people remains huge, with per capita disposable income for Shanghai's urbanites averaging 20,668 yuan (US$2,650) last year.

Meanwhile, 16 percent of the rural families in Shanghai's 10 suburban counties and districts reported a per capita annual income below 4,000 yuan (US$513) last year.

China's rural residents reported a 10.2-percent income rise last year, with per capita earnings averaging 3,587 yuan (US$460), the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

In 2006, China's national average for urban residents was 11,759 yuan (US$1,500) of per capita disposable income, up 12.1 percent from the previous year, according to the bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2007)