The average annual income of China's richest 20 percent of families is 19 times that of the poorest 20 percent, said a report released by China's health authority on Wednesday.



Families in the richest 20 percent earn an average annual income of 189,519 yuan ($30,550), accounting for 55 percent of total household income in China, while the poorest 20 percent, who earn 9,745 yuan on average, only account for 3 percent, according to the China Family Development Report, released by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) on Wednesday. The report, China's first official report on families' living conditions nationwide, collected responses from 32,494 households in 31 provinces and cities in 2014.



"The income gap between urban and rural residents has widened dramatically, and income inequality in rural areas was worse than in urban areas," said Wang Haidong, a senior official of the NHFPC in charge of family planning affairs, on Wednesday at a conference.



The average annual income of a household in urban area, at 88,683 yuan, was 1.8 times that of rural household, whose average annual income was 49,497 yuan, the report said.



Although its Gini Coefficient, a globally recognized index reflecting the gap between rich and poor, has been declining in recent years, China's income equality has not improved greatly.



China's Gini Coefficient was 0.473 in 2013, higher than the warning level of 0.44 set by the UN. The index was 0.477 in 2011 and 0.474 in 2012, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).



The average annual income of urban residents in China was 28,844 yuan in 2014, with a number in of provinces and cities in East China exceeding 40,000 yuan, while West China's Gansu Province recorded an average income of only 20,804 yuan, according to provincial government reports cited by the Guangming Daily.



