An extensive survey of university students show that less than a third of them hope to have more than one child.

The survey of 1,800 senior students from 21 universities was conducted by students from Jinan University and reported by the Beijing Morning Post on Tuesday.

More than 76 percent of those surveyed hope to get married between the ages of 25 to 29. Fully 80.4 percent say they would prefer to have a child two years after they are married, the report said.

Respondents to the survey say the most important reason for having a child is to consolidate relations between couples. Love of a child and carrying one's linage were the next two most important reasons.

Tan Kejian, of the Demographic Society of China, said the report reflects diversified child-bearing tendencies and that the traditional idea of having a son to carry on one's family name is becoming less important to the young.

Only 11 percent of those surveyed said they plan not to have children and preferred the lifestyle of having a double income with no kids.

"This is the first large-scale survey on university students' child-bearing preference and the information will be quite useful," Lu Jiehua, a professor with Beijing University said.

Wen Jiejie, one of the six writers of the survey's report, said "we choose university students born after the 1980's since China's family planning policy directly influenced them."

The one-child family policy was enacted in the 1970's to curb a huge population explosion. With 1.3 billion people, China is the most populous country in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2005)