Running of the Brides on Valentines Day in China. (Photo : Getty Images)
Premarital sex is on the rise among the youth in China -- a healthy sign in a country still grappling with the demographic aftermath of its disastrous one child policy that's said to have prevented 400 million births over the past decades.
A state survey conducted in 2015 and released on "World Contraception Day" on Sept. 26 showed that over 70 percent of Chinese university students support premarital sex. The survey covered over 130 universities throughout China and had 17,966 respondents.
Of the young women surveyed, 15 percent said they've had premarital sex while 28 percent of the young men did so. The average age of the respondents was 20 years old. Sixty percent of respondents were women.
One in 10 female university students that had sex admitted to getting pregnant at least once while 3.2 percent said they've had multiple pregnancies.
More than 60 percent of the men that had sex said they used condoms during their last sexual experience. Condoms were their preferred contraceptive method among 83.2 percent of male respondents. Of men surveyed, 16.4 percent said they never took any contraceptive measures.
Among all the respondents, 90.3 percent said they don't want to have children before they finish college.
On the other hand, 31.8 percent said premarital sex was acceptable as long as the couple were planning to get married. Another 23.6 percent of respondents said there should be no sex before marriage under any circumstances.
Of those surveyed, 56 percent received sexual education. China has some 300 million people aged between 10 and 24, accounting for one fifth of the total population.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission and the China Family Planning Association announced the results of the survey.
"It is very encouraging. As statistics showed that the number of young people who had premarital sex in China has increased in recent years, helping them to prevent unwanted pregnancy is very important," said Liu Liqing, founding country director of Marie Stopes, one of the world's largest reproductive health charities.
