The priority for men is to find a public toilet that is not foul smelling while for women the priority is to find a toilet that is safe from criminals and perverts, the survey found.

Ninety-seven percent of women selected safety as the most important out of 21 areas of concern and said they were most worried about being targeted by robbers, drug addicts or peeping toms.

Eighty-three percent of men, by contrast, said good ventilation and pleasant odor were factors they considered most important.

Nearly 600 people were interviewed for the survey by the Hong Kong Toilet Association, a member of the World Toilet Organization that lobbies for better public toilets worldwide.

Association president Michael Siu told the South China Morning Post that toilets in quiet locations should be made safer to address women’s concerns.

"Ways to increase safety include lowering the partitions between stalls, fixing any broken locks, improving the lighting and increasing patrols of public toilets," Siu told the newspaper.