The United States remains Chinese students' top destination for studying abroad despite a slight sag in popularity, according to a recent survey.

Of those who plan to study abroad, 26.8 percent prefer the US as the destination country, down about 1.3 percent from last year's survey, according to the annual report on trends in education abroad by China student recruitment agency EIC Group.

The group surveyed more than 21,000 people aged 15 to 36.