(Yicai) Jan. 5 -- The average annual income of Chinese citizens living in urban areas grew at a median pace of 8.50 percent a year between 1985 and 2021, the results of a recent report showed.

Beijing ranked first among Chinese provincial-level regions with an average yearly growth in urban wages of 9.7 percent, followed by Shanghai at 9.5 percent, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region at 8.5 percent, Shandong province at 8.5 percent, and Chongqing at 8.4 percent, according to the 2023 China Human Resources Report released by the Central University of Finance and Economics.

Seventeen provincial-level regions reported an increase of over 8 percent in the 36 years analyzed by the Central University of Finance and Economics.

The average annual income of Chinese rural citizens rose at an average speed of 6.4 percent between 1985 and 2021, according to the report. Fujian province ranked first among provincial-level regions with 7.33 percent, followed by Zhejiang province at 7.31 percent and Henan province at 7 percent. Eighteen provincial-level regions logged a growth of over 6 percent.

In those 36 years, the average length of education soared to nearly 10.8 years from 6.1 years, the report also showed.

The proportion of workers with high school education or above was 44 percent in 2021, with the figure being 57.4 percent in urban areas and 22.4 percent in rural areas. The ratio of employees with bachelor's degrees or above was 23.2 percent, with the figures in urban and rural areas being 34.1 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.

With the popularization of education, the salary-to-education ratio is gradually decreasing, Li Haizheng, professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told Yicai.

The salary-to-education ratio is a concept that calculates how much income an additional stage of education can bring and depends on various factors, including the quality of education and changes in the supply and demand structure of the labor market, Li added.

Editor: Futura Costaglione