The Beijing Municipal Informationization Work Office has published "Beijing Digital Gap Research Report", the first of its kind in China to measure the level of computer literacy among the general public in the city.

The report shows half of the residents in the city have are not qualified at all to be computer literate and 22.95% of them do not know how to turn on a computer.

The survey, on which the Beijing Municipal Informationization Work Office spent a year's time, shows that the average index of Beijing resident's computer knowledge is 42.28, far from the full mark of 100, indicating that the overall computer literacy level in the city is still much too low.

The report says that professional office workers are the most literate group and senior citizens rank at the lowest level.

Geographically, Beijing's Dongcheng District ranks the highest and Xuanwu District the lowest.

Demographically, those Beijing workers who come from other provinces rank higher than locally born residents.