Abstract: Objective To understand how unmarried youth use contraceptives,and to provide basis for the sex education before marriage.Methods SAS software was employed to analyze the data derived from "Study on Unmarried Youth's Need for Reproductive Health",which had been carried out by Shanghai Institute of Planned Parenthood Research from Aug,1995 to July,1996.Results The rate of contraceptive2use was low.It was 24.0% at the first sexual activity among them.The continuous use rate was 38.4% before their pregnancy.The most choice of contracentives was condom,other choices were withdraw,oral contraceptive and safe period.The reasons of discontinuous use for condom and withdraw,oral contraceptive,and safe period were unsatisfied,less access,and failure of contraception respectively.Conclusion The influencing factors on their choice of contraceptives include gender,residency,educational level and their knowledge of reproductive health issues.