Friday 14 February 2025 16:03 GMT
The marriage rate in China fell by a record 20 per cent in 2024
There is a growing reluctance among young Chinese to embrace traditional family life (AFP via Getty Images)
China witnessed a record 20 per cent plunge in marriages last year, marking the steepest decline ever recorded and raising further concerns about the country's shrinking population.
Despite government initiatives to encourage young couples to marry and have children, the number of registered marriages plummeted to just over 6.1 million, a significant drop from 7.68 million in 2021.
This decline underscores a growing reluctance among young Chinese to embrace traditional family life. Experts point to the soaring costs of childcare and education as major deterrents.
Furthermore, recent economic stagnation has exacerbated the situation, leaving many graduates struggling to find stable employment and fostering widespread job insecurity.
The severity of the drop is unprecedented.
Young Chinese are reluctant to embrace traditional life and its trappings (AFP via Getty Images)
Even during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, marriage registrations only decreased by 12.2 per cent, according to demographer Yi Fuxian of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This highlights the depth of the current demographic challenge facing China.
He noted that the number of marriages in China last year was less than half of the 13.47 million in 2013.
If this trend continues, "the Chinese government's political and economic ambitions will be ruined by its demographic Achilles' heel," he said.
For Chinese authorities, boosting interest in marriage and baby-making is a pressing concern.
China has the second-biggest population in the world at 1.4 billion - one that is aging quickly.
The birth rate fell for decades due to China's 1980-2015 one-child policy and rapid urbanisation. And in the coming decade, roughly 300 million Chinese - the equivalent of almost the entire US population - are expected to enter retirement.
Measures taken last year by authorities to tackle the problem included urging China's colleges and universities to provide "love education" to emphasise positive views on marriage, love, fertility and family.
In November, China's state council or cabinet, also told local governments to direct resources towards fixing China's population crisis and spread respect for childbearing and marriages "at the right age."
Last year saw a slight rise in births after a lull due to the pandemic and because 2024 was the Chinese zodiac year of the dragon - with children born that year considered likely to be ambitious and have great fortune.
But even with the increase in births, the country's population fell for a third consecutive year.
The data also showed that more than 2.6 million couples filed for divorce last year, up 1.1 per cent from 2023.
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