HE DRINKS Coke, eats at McDonald's, wears Nike and uses Gatsby in his hair.

His favourite band is The Click Five. When he's not listening to music, he's surfing YouTube or watching a movie.

He does not care for fancy cars but hopes for a good job that'll pay the bills. His greatest fear: To fall ill or to go to war.

This is the portrait of the young Singaporean, drawn from a survey of 728 youth, aged 12 to 19. A report on the survey was released this month by Sulake, a Finnish company.

The company is best known for creating Habbo Hotel, a virtual world populated by teens who chat, interact and play games online. Ninety per cent of its 9.4 million registered players are teens aged 13 to 18.

The Singapore survey was part of a larger effort by Sulake to track the spending habits, values and attitudes of the young.

Overall, 58,486 teens from 31 countries across Europe, South America and Asia were interviewed in October and November last year.

The 2008 report also compared the values of Singapore youth against a global average.

It found that youth here are 15 per cent more likely than foreign youth to be religious, and are 12 per cent less likely to support tough sentencing for criminals.

They are also 13 per cent more likely to defend computer piracy, and 10 per cent less likely to be patriotic. These numbers support the results of a similar survey conducted by Sulake in 2006 among youth here.

In that report, Singapore youth also ranked music, computers and movies top among their interests.

It concluded that young people here were 'more positive towards computer piracy', and 'most religious' compared to youth in other countries.

Young Singaporeans interviewed by The Straits Times generally felt the survey results were on the mark - except for one.

Steven Yang, 17, a Singapore Polytechnic engineering student and cell group leader at his church, said: 'I don't drink Coke anymore. I prefer Coke Light.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Apr 14, 2008.