40% of university graduates spend over 30% of income on rent

More than 50 percent of fresh university graduates in 2019 lived and worked in big cities, and nearly 40 percent of the graduates spent over 30 percent of their income on renting apartments, according to a recent big data report.

The major factor when graduates choose future residences is their income, according to the report released by the property information website zhuge.com and the newspaper China Times.

Although nearly half of the graduates said that they expected to earn more than 6,000 yuan ($873) per month, in reality, more than half of all graduates in 2019 earn less than 5,000 yuan per month.

Due to the lower average salaries, 70 percent would like to spend less than 2,000 yuan. Only 6 percent of graduates expected to spend more than 5,000 yuan, and most such graduates live and work in big cities.

According to the report, 40 percent of the graduates said that they need financial support from parents for rent, which takes up 20 to 50 percent of their monthly spending.

In terms of housing choices, more than 60 percent of fresh graduates prefer to rent an entire apartment. However, statistics also showed that many graduates in big cities have chosen to share the high rent with other tenants.