In 2024, marriages in China plunged 20% to record low prices. Young people resisted the government's efforts to persuade them to settle down and give birth to more babies.
China's marriages have declined from 7.7m in 2023 to 6.1m last year, data from China's Civil Ministry showed. This figure is less than half of the number registered in 2013, the lowest since record-keeping began in 1986.
Data also showed that 2.6 million couples filed for divorce in 2024, an increase of 1.1% from the previous year.
The sharp diving of marriage was amplified by the short rebound in 2023 as people caught up with the wedding after years of community restrictions. There was also speculation that they avoided getting married in 2024. The Ominous Year of the Widow On a Chinese moon calendar.
However, the broader trend was on track – stubbornly resisting the push to reverse the decline of China's demographics of the dominant Communist Party.
“It's not that people don't want to get married, they can't afford to marry!” One Changzhou-based commenter on the topic since Monday said he had more than 46 million people. He said he has engaged.
China has the world's second largest population, and has been enforced for decades of strict childbirth restrictions, including the policy of only children. But now, as China faces a declining population and aging population that threatens the country's economic future, authoritarian governments hope that people will have more children.
A large part of that push is trying to encourage more marriages. Birth is closely related to Chinese marriage, and is born from the birth of minors who are discouraged by traditional values and various government regulations.
However, decades of restrictions mean that fewer people today are at an age where it is likely to marry. And those who are not interested in marriage or children.
“For many young people, not getting married is a positive choice. At the same time, it's also a big reason to have their own lifestyle and enjoy the life of one person,” said another Weibo commenter.
“Women can support themselves and don't need to resort to men. They are much less willing to marry than they have in the past.”
Concerns over high youth unemployment rates, surge in living, the costs of education and child-rearing, and the rebellion over traditional gender roles have been held quickly against government financial pleading and policy overhauls.
“The collapse of marriage rates reflects the convergence of social forces: a decline in the population of young adults, a recent dark economic outlook for graduates, a change in attitudes towards marriage, and gender dichotoms between men and women Escalation of morphology” he explained at the Diplomatic Council. Defeating your fiance as “extreme”.
Weibo commenters also highlighted that society appears to have become “more tolerant” and that they said it is a change in the level of pressure exerted by families at recent Chinese New Year gatherings. He said he is doing it.
“Ten years ago, what I most heard from relatives was about my daughter or son not being married by the age of 27 or 28. Now, what I'm hearing is basically I'm over 30 years old. [Getting married before] 27 or 28 are no longer qualified for discussion. ”
Many commenters are wary of “easy entry and strict exits” for marriage, citing the controversial introduction of the 2021 divorce cooling-off period. Others have found themselves refused to legalize same-sex marriages or to offer equal rights to de facto same-sex couples.
“Why did the number of marriage registrations drop again in 2024? I'm a lesbian,” one woman wrote.
