The number of bachelors in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province over the age of 30 has tripled that of the city's number of bachelorettes in the same age category, according to Modern Express on Thursday.

Nanjing has some 100,100 "leftover men" in their thirties or shengnan in comparison to 30,600 "leftover women" or shengnü in the same age bracket, according to the report.

A poll of 50 men in Nanjing by the paper said that 35 respondents see the age of 30 as the "golden time" for marriage, while 15 of them said they would "feel pressure" if they were still unmarried at the age of 35.

China has 1.06 million single men and 840,000 single women, according to the nation's sixth census conducted in 2010.

The enlarging gap between unmarried males and females is becoming a serious social problem for the country, said experts.

According to Lei Xiaoping, deputy director of population and employment at Nanjing Statistics Bureau, more men are having a tough time finding a suitable wife because Chinese tradition believes that men should earn more than women.

But as more women become educated and earn their own wages, it's harder for men to make more money than women and meet their ideal wife, said Lei.

Modern Express