Survey finds 80% approve of pre-marital sex

A survey released on the occasion of this year's Qixi Festival, also known as the Chinese Valentine's Day, revealed that nearly 80 percent of respondents held a permissive attitude toward pre-marriage sex.

According to a study done by the online dating service agency Jiayuan.com with 2,320 interviewees from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, 77.8 percent of respondents were open to pre-marriage sex, and a sizable percentage of them had already engaged in it.

A good 63.8 percent of respondents born after 1990 had premarital sexual experience, compared to 59.9 percent of interviewees born after 1980.

However, 37.7 percent of respondents did not inform their parents of their pre-marriage sexual lives due to their parents' conservative attitude. The survey also found that the parents of only one-third of female interviewees supported their daughters' pre-marriage sex.

According to Jiayuan.com, many interviewees felt under pressure because their parents saw cohabitation as a step toward the ultimate goal of marriage.

The agency's president, Zhuang Hai, remarked that there has been a shift in the Chinese youth's attitude toward marriage due to the increasing popularity of courtship over marriage.

Fewer than half of the respondents cited "marriage trial" as the reason. Some mentioned rental costs (27 percent) and living cost-sharing (17.6 percent), as well as sex (mentioned by a sizable proportion of respondents).

According to the survey, different living practices (45.7 percent), housework (33.3 percent), and a lack of independent space (25.9 percent) were the top three causes of disputes.

Whether or not marriage was their ultimate objective, 49.6 percent of respondents reported that living together improved their relationship, while 17.1 percent had tied the knot.

More than 40 percent of those living together had sex two or three times a week, but 26 percent broke up due to disagreements after cohabiting.