The world's most populous country is expanding its social security net as China's major social insurance program reached a new high for the number of people covered, official figures show.

The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said on Thursday that the nation's urban pension insurance covered 235.5 million people by the end of 2009, an increase of 16.6 million over the beginning of that same year.

In addition, 26.47 million migrant workers were also included, which was 2.31 million more migrants than at the start of 2009.

Officials note that pension fund revenues topped 1.15 trillion yuan by the end of last year, up 18 percent year on year. This followed the government raising the monthly pension income for business retirees for the fifth time between 2005 and 2009 to 1,225 yuan ($180) a person.

Also, the country's basic urban medical insurance covered 401 million people in 2009, of which 219 million were urban dwellers and 43.35 million were rural migrant workers.

Additional figures showed that unemployment insurance covered 127 million people while those carrying work injury insurance reached 149 million. Lastly, maternity insurance covered 109 million women.

(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2010)