Marriages in China last year plunged by one-fifth to the lowest level on record, a setback to efforts by the government to reverse a demographic crisis threatening the world’s second-largest economy.
The number of marriage registrations fell to 6.1 million, according to statistics released by the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs on Saturday, after a post-COVID-19 pandemic increase to nearly 7.7 million in 2023.
The tally for last year marks the fewest marriages since public records began in 1986 and is less than half the peak reached in 2013.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The failure to encourage more people to tie the knot in the nation of 1.4 billion people represents a challenge for a government struggling to arrest China’s sharp drop in births. A marriage certificate is typically required to register new babies, though some localities have moved to scrap the requirement so single parents or unmarried couples can enjoy the same rights as married ones.
“Marriage has been falling out of favor, particularly with younger people, due to high costs, the sluggish economy and evolving attitudes toward traditional marriages,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ada Li said in a report.
Registrations might also have suffered last year because it was an inauspicious year for marriage — known as a “Widow Year.”
About 2.6 million people also filed for divorce, up 1.1 percent from 2023, the data showed.
China’s population shrank for the third straight year last year, even though births rose slightly. Some of the improvement was attributed to the belief that the Year of the Dragon was lucky for having children.
The number of marriages has been in a near-constant state of decline over the past decade, with the annual figure dropping below 10 million in 2019.
In a speech in October last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) called for giving stronger guidance to young people in shaping their attitude toward marriage, childbearing and family.
China in August last year proposed a draft law that would make it easier to register marriages and tougher to file for divorce, provoking a public backlash, with people questioning the intention of the authorities.
The topic of China’s steep drop in marriage registrations last year was trending China’s Sina Weibo yesterday, where some of the comments pointed to the financial strains involved in getting married.
In the words of one user, “life is already so tiring. Who has the courage to get married?”
Another comment read: “Getting married is a big expense. I suddenly felt this year that it’s pretty good being single, I don’t have such big pressure and can spend the money I earned myself.”
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