BMW owners consider themselves to be small and medium-sized business owners or senior management at multinationals with a positive attitude to life, living life to the full and being relatively discreet. YAN DAMING/CHINA DAILY

Survey: The average owner is 33.5 years old, 76% are male

Though highly educated with big incomes, Chinese luxury car owners are surprisingly young, according to a survey released by a the Hurun Research Institute, which tracks wealth in China wealth research institution.

The average age of luxury car owners is just 33.5 years, the survey found. Seventy-six percent are male and about one in 10 spent at least three years overseas, Hurun said in its 2014 report on luxury car brands released on Wednesday in Beijing.

The 37-page report compares the images of eight luxury car brands in China: Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Volvo, Land Rover, Cadillac and Infiniti.

Together owners had an annual average family income of 1.05 million yuan ($175,000). Mercedes-Benz owners had the highest income and Infiniti owners the lowest, said the report.

BMW had the highest percentage of female owners, while Cadillac had the highest percentage of males.

Volvo owners had the highest education level. Audi had the most government officials as owners and Land Rover had the most entrepreneurs. Lexus had the least distinct ownership group.

Hurun Research carried out the survey across 10 cities in China and surveyed 100 car owners from each of the eight brands between February and October this year.

In Beijing, Tianjin, Dalian, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Kunming and Chengdu, Hurun Research surveyed a minimum of 10 car owners for each main product. The car owners surveyed each had 1.4 cars on average.

"Spending money on a nice car is the first outward sign of success for many Chinese," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher for the Hurun Report. "The objective of this report is to highlight the brand image of these luxury cars in China."

The report came as no surprise as the country now has 2.9 million US dollar millionaires and 1.09 million individuals with a personal wealth of 10 million yuan ($17 million).

Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai have the highest number of millionaires, according to Hurun's wealth report for 2014.

The average monthly income of luxury car owners was 30,000 yuan with their household income reaching 88,000 yuan monthly. About three out of 10 households surveyed had a monthly income of 100,000 yuan or more. The average personal wealth of the households was 8.8 million yuan, and 10 percent of them are worth more than 10 million yuan.

The personal interests of luxury car owners ranged from travel to good food to family activities and sports. Female car owners preferred spas, beauty care and art and had an interest in the environment, said the report.

When surveying social status, car owners were asked to choose from 118 descriptions and characteristics that came from four in-depth focus group panel interviews with car owners in Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou.