SHANGHAI, June 4 -- A survey out today shows that two out of three Chinese are tolerant towards pre-marital sex, China News Service reported.

Chinese people's general attitudes toward sex are more liberal and tolerant compared with six years ago, the socio-sexology institution of Renmin University of China said in a report about the survey conducted from July to November last year to explore changes in Chinese people's sex lives.

Among the 6,010 interviewees from 21 provinces with ages ranging from 18 to 61, 63.78 percent didn't think premarital sex was a moral issue, compared 55.69 percent in 2000.

Totally 60.3 percent of the female interviewees showed their tolerance towards premarital sex, which was up 11.3 percentage points from 2000, while two thirds of middle-aged respondents accepted the view.

The survey also said more than 70 percent of people whose incomes above the average nodded to the issue.

Pan Suiming, the head of the institution, said about 70 percent of the domestic social or cultural elites accepted pre-marital sex, the fastest growing group in the past six years of all the social classes.

The survey, hosted by Pan, interviewed people from different social groups with different occupations, including the middle aged, the middle class, white-collars, cadres, office clerks, technical staff, teachers and officials.

Pan said more attention should be paid to people aged above 27 who are still single and live without sex and who accounted for 30 percent of the total.