A latest government survey shows that women in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region are having fewer children as the standard of living has increased in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

The survey, conducted by the regional authorities, covers 317 women of child bearing age in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, Shigatse and Nagqu prefectures.

According to the survey, the number of women with one or two children accounted for 83 percent of the total surveyed in Lhasa, and 64 percent in Nagqu. Last year the same survey showed the highest percentage for that rate was 71 percent.

No more than 3 percent of surveyed women wished to have four or more children, while 4 percent preferred one child, 45 percent wished to have two children and 48 percent wished to have three.

The survey results revealed that more women in Tibet would ask for a sterilization operation after they had two or three children and 90 percent of women preferred simple and long-effective contraception methods. Of women who already had two children, 40 percent wanted a sterilization operation.

The survey organizers attributed the progress to remarkable improvements in living standards in Tibet, which promoted great changes in local people's attitudes towards children-bearing.

A lot of women in rural areas of Tibet used to have 10 or more children and therefore lived in poverty, although they preferred to have no more than four children, but failed in their attempts for lack of contraception knowledge.

(China Daily September 1, 2003)