Chinese officials believe public security is the most serious social problem, according to a survey by the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

About 36.6 percent of officials said public security was their top concern and 23.2 percent said the income gap, reported the Beijing Daily. The income gap had been the most serious problem in past surveys.

Corruption came third, followed by social morality, unemployment, development disparity, high medical costs, the burdens of farmers and unequal opportunity in education, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, about 35.3 percent of officials believed that income gap was the most disharmonious factor and phenomenon in Chinese society.

Other factors seen to hinder social harmony included differences between cities and rural areas, conflicts among different social strata, contradictions between officials and the public as well as poverty.

About 73.3 percent of officials believed the overall situation of China was "very good" or "fairly good", according to the survey. The figure was down slightly compared with last year's 79 percent.

Nearly 68.8 percent of the officials believed China's reform in 2006 went "normally", while eight percent thought it was "too fast" and 21.4 percent thought it was "too slow".

The survey was among officials who studied at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, the highest institution for training high and middle-ranking party officials and Marxist theoreticians.

Source: Xinhua