Most young women in China would prefer to date men 10 years older to them saying they may be able to take better care of them, results of a nationwide survey has revealed.
Seventy per cent of women, aged 18-25, preferred older men because they were more attractive, wealthier and better able to take care of them, according to the survey of 98,000 men and women.
Of those, about 64 per cent were hoping to have older boyfriends, 17 per cent had dated older men and the rest expressed a preference for older men over men their own age.
However, the women were concerned that such relationships might not please their parents and that an older man might have a family already or could be too mature for them to handle, Shanghai Daily reported.
According to the survey, published by the Training and Communication Center of the National Population and Family planning Commission, together with Beijing-based wedding website jiayuan.com, the country has 249 million unmarried adults.
A nationwide census report in November 2010 showed that nearly 12 million men aged 30 to 39 were single and hoping to marry younger women.
The survey also found that both men and women were becoming more open-minded about sex.
Some 84 per cent men and 73 per cent women said they didn’t care whether their future spouse was a virgin or not.
However, when it came to living together, 86 per cent of men were happy with idea of living together before marriage, compared to 36 per cent of women.