While income inequality has become a huge issue in the U.S., the income gap in China is even larger and growing more rapidly, according to economic researchers drawing on a wide variety of new data.

Reasons for the wide China income gap include substantial regional differences and a significant urban-rural gap. This differs greatly from the U.S. model where the gap is fueled by factors like family disparities, individual earning differences and racial-ethnic and gender roles.

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What's more, the gap in China is growing at levels surpassing even those of the U.S., according to new research from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A report addressing income inequality in the new China found that incime inequality in china from 1980 to 2012 grew at nearly twice the rate of the U.S.

Report researchers also found:

• Regional disparity in China accounted for 12 percent of that nation's income inequality compared to 2 percent in the U.S.;
• Urban-rural disparity in China accounted for 10 percent of the gap. It had virtually no effect in the U.S.;
• Family-structure and inheritance accounted for 12 percent of the U.S. income gap. It accounted for 2 percent of the Chinese gap. Reseacrhers said this was due, partially, to 8 percent of the U.S.population living in one-parent households compared to 2 percent in China;
• Race-ehtnicity was a greater factor in the U.S. gap than in China;
• Household head education levels accounted for 15 percent of income gaps in both China and the U.S.
• China's economy has been booming to the tune of a 12-to-18 percent annual GDP growth since 2006 compared to 3 percent, or so, in the U.S. China household income, however, hasn't grown uniformly.

While the World Bank expects extreme poverty to be eliminated almost entirely in China by 2022, a Peking University survey found China's top 5 percent income-earning households brought home 23 percent of national income. The lowest 5 percent on the economic ladder brought home only 0.1 percent of national income.

Income inequality in China dates to 1978 when Deng Xiaoping's market reforms, researchers found. And the wealthy are getting wealthier. World Bank found the gap between the wealthiest 10 percent and poorest 10 percent in China went from nearly 20-to-1 in 2002 to 25-to-1 in 2007.

TagsU.S. income inequality, occupy wall street, China income inequality