A latest survey showed more than half of the residents in China's top three cities Beijing, Shanghai and Guanghzou have bought insurance.

According to the survey released by CVSC-TNS Research (CTR) in mid November, 68.9 percent of Beijing residents bought insurance, 82 percent in Shanghai and 49.7 percent in Guangzhou.

The survey said most Chinese bought insurance from domestic companies but foreign companies were also improving their business.

Some 4.38 percent of Shanghai residents bought insurance from the American International Assurance Co. Ltd. while 7.68 percent bought in Guangzhou.

And 0.56 percent of Shanghai people bought from the Allianz Dazhong Life Insurance Company and 0.52 percent in Guangzhou.

The domestic Ping'an Insurance Company ranked the first choice among the Beijing and Shanghai residents and the second in Guangzhou following the China Life Insurance Co. Ltd., the survey said.

However, 70.6 percent of Beijing residents were unable to select the most satisfactory insurance company, 15.7 percent in Guangzhou and 5.22 percent in Shanghai.

The survey showed that Beijing residents were worried about the possibility of severe disease. Some 61.2 percent bought insurance for severe disease treatment.

In Shanghai, 72.55 percent people bought hospitalization insurance while just 3.47 percent bought for severe disease treatment.

According to official figures, the insurance premiums amounted to 296.8 billion yuan (35.89 billion US dollars) in the first three quarters of this year, a year-on-year rise of 31 percent.

The survey was sampled from September 2002 to February this year as part of the China National Readership Survey (CNRS).

CTR was founded in 1995 and became a joint venture of the China International TV Corp. (CITVC) and Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) in 2001, a leading media and marketing research company in China.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2003)