About 74 percent of urban dwellers in China feel optimistic about their future, People's Daily reported Thursday.

The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) issued a blue paper Wednesday, titled "Analysis and forecast of China's social development in 2006," in which only 3.5 percent of respondents felt pessimistic about their future lives.

The blue paper is based on a survey of life quality in 2005. The survey was conducted in eight metropolises, seven townships and eight rural regions by the Horizon Group, a professional research and management consulting company.

Over 46 percent urban dwellers expressed the hope to change their jobs or be promoted next year, the study found.

About 73 percent of urban dwellers feel happy with their lives, the blue paper found, stressing that wealth is not the decisive factor in their sense of happiness.

(Xinhua News Agency December 23, 2005)