Abstract: In view of the deficiencies in the existing literatures that the relative income effect is often ignored in the analysis of the influence of income on residents’ environmental awareness, this paper makes use of the data of China’s General Social Survey in 2013 to conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of absolute income and relative income on residents’ environmental awareness. To explore this relation adequately, it carries out regression analysis respectively according to the regions, gender and urban-rural locations of the samples. The results show that if the relative income effect is not taken into account, the absolute income will have a significantly positive correlation with residents’ environmental awareness. Nevertheless, once the relative income effect is taken into consideration, the absolute income will still significantly influences residents’ environmental awareness, but the degree of the influence will decline. At the same time, the relative income shows a significantly positive correlation with residents’ environmental awareness, and the degree of influence is beyond that of the absolute income. Moreover, the results also prove that such factors as age, gender, education level, place of residence, health condition and politic status may exert a significant influence on residents’ environmental awareness.

Key words: resident’s environmental awareness; absolute income; relative income