Education, immigration status and income are the top categories Chinese people living in the United States consider when searching for mates, according to the latest report by a Chinese dating company in the San Francisco area.

Chinese people put much emphasis on educational background of their prospective mates, said the report by 2 Red Beans on Valentine's Day. The report is based on surveys of 300,000 registered users nationwide.

The respondents, 34 years old on average, prefer their mates to be US citizens or legal residents than those on visas. As to careers, the report said doctors and lawyers are the most popular ones, as those jobs represent good incomes.

Accountants and engineers also make stable and decent incomes, so they are popular among women, too. Another aspect most females care about is the male's height, the report said.

Though men do not attach much importance to women's careers and incomes, a woman's ideal job in their mind is related with art. Female managers and engineers also are their favorite, according to the report.

The report also finds that males' favorite attributes for females are being considerate, caring, devoted and smart, while females put more attention to maturity, financial security, sense of responsibility and sense of humor.

As to the ideal age, most of the male respondents prefer their mate's age from 24 to 39, while females prefer 28-44 years old, according to an analysis of the profiles of 100,000 users registered in California in January this year.

According to an online survey conducted in February this year on 300 Chinese singles, 75 percent of the respondents, whether male or female, do not approve of dating several people at the same time.

The website now has more than 500,000 registered users in the US, and most of them are concentrated in Northern California, followed by New York and Southern California.

About 36 percent of the website's users are people who came from the Chinese mainland and now live in America, and 26 percent and 14 percent were originally from Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively. Nearly 19 percent were born in America.

As to their native languages, 57 percent speak Mandarin, 29 percent speak English, and 14 percent speak Cantonese, according to the company.

The rate of the male users accounts for 56 percent of total users, slightly higher than their female counterparts. Contrary to people's impression that girls tend to be passive, the girls usually take an active role in contacting the male they are interested in, according to an analysis of texting frequency.

"Smartphone users are becoming a main part of the business," said the website's founder Q Zhao, who goes by "Q".

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com