Ten percent of married couples start their romantic relationship with online love. Pre-marital cohabitation is more tolerant. Two-thirds of people believe that it doesn't matter if a woman marries a man who is younger than her.

These are just part of the rapidly changing concept of marriage for today's Chinese youth, showed by a newly-compiled report on marriage in China, Beijing Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

Over 2 million people took part in a survey that backs up the current report, which was jointly prepared by Beijing Normal University and two other Chinese research institutions.

It found that 80 percent of female respondents felt men aged 31 were ideal as marriage partners, while in 2006, the best age for men was 23 to 26.

In comparison, 65 percent of male respondents thought that the ideal marrying age for women is 25. And for women who are over 30, the opportunity for getting married decreased with age.

The marriageable age for women is much younger than that of men, according to the report. It also explains why there are more female singles out there than males, against the backdrop of China having more men than women.

An expert from the Beijing Women Federation notes that a man of 25 can choose girls of the same age or even several years younger than him as the marriage partner, while for woman, it's still hard to accept men who are much younger than them. Thus women have a narrower scope from which to choose.