Though marriage is still divine, Cupid has found it much harder to shoot the arrow in Taiwan.

About 24.5 percent of young people aged between 20 and 39 who did not want to marry rose to 24.5 percent in 2005 from 16 percent in 2004, according to media reports from Taipei on Monday.

Local media quoted a survey results released on Monday as saying that more and more young Taiwanese choose to stay single all their lives given "economic causes" and difficulty to find another half, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by local health promotion bureau.

The poll, conducted by telephone in September 2005, found that though the reasons for opting to remain single varied, 35.9 percent of men aged between 20 and 39 in Taiwan cited "economic causes" as the major reason keeping them from tying their knots.

Meanwhile, 21.9 percent of women aged 20 and 39 said their choose to stay away from wedlock because "marriage will compromise my single life."

Some respondents during the survey said they opted for celibacy because they had not met their Mr. or Ms. Right, while some others said that "marriage involves too much trouble."

The poll found that 58.2 percent of the men and women would like to get married if they had suitable partners. This figure was 3.3 percentage points lower than the figure obtained in a similar poll conducted in 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2006)