The survey was conducted jointly by the News Center of the Shanghai International Fashion Cultural Festival and the Shanghai Fashion Newspaper.

Among nearly 10,000 surveyed people, 84 percent are below the age of 40 and 69 percent have a college education. More than half of the respondents earn a monthly income of less than 1,500 yuan, 36 percent from 1,500 to 3,000 yuan and 11 percent more than 3,000 yuan.

The questionnaire involves suits, knit underwear, coats, skirts, down jackets and fur-lined clothing. According to the survey, young people have 58.13 items of clothes per person on average.

Of all kinds of clothes, the consumption of suits has risen fastest, reaching 5.29 items per capita, five times as many as in 1985. Next are skirts with 11 items per woman, a 268 percent increase.

The survey also reveals that young people are particularly fond of clothes consumption and are willing to spend money on them. More than one third of them spend over 2,000 yuan a year on clothes, nearly a quarter of them spend 1,000-2,000 yuan, and only ten percent spend less than 500 yuan.

(Xinhua 04/25/2001)