调查：五分之一的人要与宠物共度情人节

Rather than spending Valentine's Day with their partner, one fifth of adults would prefer to be with their pet, although the French still came top for romance, according to a joint global poll by Reuters/Ipsos.

The survey of 24,000 people in 23 countries found 21 percent of adults would rather spend February 14 with their pet than their spouse, although the French were least likely to choose a furry friend over a human with only 10 percent taking that option.

But the survey found that age and income were more of a determining factor than nationality when it came to romance, with younger, less affluent people more likely to choose their pet as their Valentine's Day companion.

John Wright, senior vice president of Ipsos, said 25 percent of people aged under 35 opted for their pet over their partner compared to 18 percent of those aged 35-54 and 14 percent of people aged 55 plus.

Men and women were evenly split over the question.

Those choosing pets over people were also more likely to be those who have a lower income (24 percent) compared to those who were middle or higher income earners (20 percent).

"Likely defying stereotype, the desire to spurn a partner for a pet is not rooted in gender but rather age and even there it seems the older you are, the least likely it is you'd choose pet over partner," said Wright.

"While there are country differences, it's more of a personal choice made by younger and less affluent individuals."

On a country-by-country basis, residents of Turkey were the most likely, at 49 percent, to choose their pet over their spouse or partner.

Next came India with 41 percent, then Japan with 30 percent, China with 29 percent, the United States with 27 percent and Australia with 25 percent.

On the other hand, the nations where residents were the least likely to want to spend the day with a pet instead of their spouse or partner were France at 10 percent, Mexico 11 percent, the Netherlands 12 percent and Hungary at 12 percent.

据路透集团和益普索调查机构日前联合开展的一项全球民调显示，五分之一的成年人愿与宠物而非伴侣共度情人节。不过法国人依然最浪漫。

这项对23个国家共2.4万人开展的调查发现，21%的成年人宁愿与宠物而非伴侣共度2月14日的情人节，不过法国人选择与宠物共度该节日的可能性最小，仅有10%的人有此意向。

但调查发现，与国籍相比，年龄和收入与人们浪漫与否的关系更大。经济上不太富裕的年轻人更倾向于选择与宠物共度情人节。

益普索调查机构的高级副总裁约翰•莱特说，年龄在35岁以下的人中，有25%的人选择宠物而非伴侣共度情人节，而年龄在35到54岁之间的人做出这一选择的比例为18%，55岁以上人群的这一比例为14%。

男性和女性对这一问题的态度差不多。

收入较低的人更倾向于选择与宠物共度情人节（24%），而中高收入者的这一比例为20%。

莱特说：“这可能是一种反传统的做法，重宠物轻伴侣的想法和性别无关，而在于年龄。似乎是一个人的年龄越大，选择宠物的可能性越小。”

“尽管国家之间也存在差异，但这更多的是年轻和经济上不富裕的人群所做出的个人选择。”

就不同国家而言，土耳其人选择与宠物共度情人节的比例最高，达49%。

其次是印度，为41%，日本为30%，中国为29%，美国是27%，澳大利亚是25%。

另一方面，法国人最不愿意抛弃配偶或伴侣而选择与宠物共度情人节，仅有10%的人愿意这样做；墨西哥人的这一比例为11%，荷兰为12%，匈牙利为12%。

Vocabulary:

affluent: having a lot of money and a good standard of living 富裕的

spurn: to reject or refuse somebody/something, especially in a proud way （尤指傲慢地）拒绝（She spurned all offers of help. 她断然拒绝一切帮助。）