Women are more likely to be successful than men in running enterprises, shows a recent survey by the China Investigation System of Entrepreneurs.

With the great changes in social, economic, political and family status in China, a new stratum of female entrepreneurs have come into being, says the survey carried by Monday's Workers' Daily.

According to the survey, China had 19.59 million female enterprise owners and legal representatives. Some 89 percent of the female entrepreneurs are engaged in processing, manufacturing and service industries and merely 1.5 percent of the enterprises are non-profit.

Only 30 percent of the female entrepreneurs have got loans from the banks and 45 percent of them rely on personal savings, families and friends for investment.

The economic performance of enterprises run by women is better than those run by men and the income of female entrepreneurs is a little higher than male entrepreneurs, the survey shows.

Female entrepreneurs, an average 46.5 years old, are more confident than male entrepreneurs. They are also more satisfied with their economic, social and political status than male entrepreneurs, according to the survey.

The percentage of female entrepreneurs with an annual income below 20,000 yuan (2,418 US dollars) is 6.9 percentage points less than male enterprises. The percentage of female entrepreneurs with an income between 40,000-100,000 (4,836-12,091 US dollars) and those with an income between 100,000-500,000 yuan (12,091-60,459 US dollars) is respectively 1.5 and 5.2 percentage points higher than male entrepreneurs.

The percentage of female entrepreneurs with the income between 20,000-40,000 yuan (2,418-4,836 US dollars) and above 500,000 yuan(60,459 US dollars) is more or less the same as male entrepreneurs.