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Twenty-one out of 1,000 residents are scientifically literate in Zhejiang Province, an economic hub on China's east coast that has reported the fastest growth since the country's reform and opening up in the late 1970s,an official survey shows.

The survey shows that those in Zhejiang with a basic understanding of scientific terms and concepts, scientific processes and the impact of science and technology on themselves and society is 0.7 percent higher than the national average of 1.4percent, according to a source with the Zhejiang Provincial Association of Science and Technology, which organized the survey.

Tracking 1,920 residents aged between 18 and 69 in 20 cities and counties across the province over a period of four months this year, the survey found there is still a large gap between male and female, urban and rural residents and among different occupations.

While 2.5 percent of the male population have basic scientific literacy, only 1.7 percent of females do, and though 3.7 percent of the urban residents in Zhejiang met the criteria, only 0.6 percent of the rural residents did.

Teachers, researchers and other well-educated people were found to enjoy the highest level of scientific literacy, followed by business executives, employees in trade, service and manufacturing industries, with agricultural workers at the bottom of the list.

Different age groups also vary in scientific literacy.

Those between 18 and 30 reported a rate of 5.6 percent, 4.6 percent higher than those aged between 41 and 50, most of whom idled away their school days during the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976.

TV and traditional media, including newspapers, magazines and books, are the main sources respondents use to update themselves on recent sci-tech development. The Internet, however, is not as popular as it was once thought to be, as the survey shows only 2.8 percent of the respondents often visit science websites and 88.5 percent have never visited one.

The survey reveals that Zhejiang's residents are most interested in medical and environmental issues, "a sign that the better-off Zhejiangers have come to attach more importance to their quality of life," said Lu Zhihong, an official with the Provincial Association of Science and Technology.

About 71 percent of the respondents said they were looking forward to new therapies to treat cancer and other fatal diseases. An overwhelming majority of those surveyed said doctors were the most respected profession.

Some 48.2 percent of the respondents said they were expecting science and technology to play a larger role in environmental protection.

In addition, 71.5 percent and 58.7 percent of those surveyed said they were looking forward to new technologies on environmental protection and disaster prevention respectively.

The China Association for Science and Technology has conducted four nationwide surveys on the population's basic scientific literacy since 1992. The fourth survey, which was conducted in 2001 and covered 22 ethnic minorities, found the basic scientific literacy among Chinese citizens had reached 1.4 percent, an increase of 1.2 percent over five years.

Zhejiang is the fifth Chinese locality to carry out such a survey, following Beijing, Shanghai, Hubei and Ningxia.