China recorded 6.83 million new marriages in 2022, the lowest number since registrations began in 1986, according to official data released by state media today.
In 2021, the number had already hit a new low, with 7.63 million marriages celebrated.
According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of marriage registrations in China has been falling since 2013, when there were 13.46 million marriages.
In 2019, the number fell below ten million for the first time.
Quoted by the official Global Times newspaper, demographer He Yafu said that last year marked the lowest number not only since there have been records, but since 1980, according to his calculations.
He highlighted the contraction in the young population and more men than women in the Asian country as factors responsible for the falling number of marriages.
According to China’s last population census, conducted in 2020, there were 17.52 million more men than women in the 20-40 age group.
The average age of first marriage for women increased from 24 years in 2010 to 27.95 years in 2020.
The expert also pointed to the “high cost” of marriage, which sometimes includes dowry, a custom still present in some parts of the country, and “changes in attitude towards marriage among the younger generations” as other reasons for the drop in the number of marriages.
China lost 850,000 inhabitants in 2022, in the first population decline in over half a century.
The country closed the year with 1,411.75 million people, down from 1,412.6 million at the end of 2021.
At the 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress in 2022, the ruling party indicated that the country needs a system that will “increase birth rates and reduce the costs of pregnancy, childbirth, schooling and parenthood”.
UN estimates indicate that India this year overtook China as the world’s most populous country.
