China's population woes deepen as marriage registrations plummet to lowest level since 1980
Couples prepare to get their photo taken during a wedding photography shoot on a street in Shanghai, China, May 31, 2021. Reuters-Yonhap
China recorded its lowest number of new marriages for four decades in 2024, in a sign that the country's challenges with a declining birth rate and shrinking population are likely to deepen this year.
Last year, 6.10 million couples in China tied the knot, down 20.5 percent from 2023, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The 2024 total is the lowest recorded since 1980.
Meanwhile, the number of divorces edged up by 1.1 percent to 2.82 million in 2024, despite the fall in marriage registrations.
"Given that the vast majority of births in China occur within marriage ... the sharp decline in marriage registrations in 2024 is a clear indicator that the birth rate will continue to drop in 2025," said He Yafu, an independent demographer based in southern China's Guangdong province.
China's demographic crisis is being compounded by its chronically low birth rate, a product of a declining number of women of childbearing age and a growing trend among young people to put off getting married and starting a family due a range of social and economic factors.
Despite government efforts to encourage couples to have more children, China's population is widely expected to continue shrinking, creating a long-term policy challenge as the country grapples with a shrinking workforce and a rapidly aging society.
In 2024, China recorded a slight uptick in births for the first time since 2017, with the number of births reaching 9.54 million, up from 9.02 million the previous year.
Experts attributed the rebound to a rise in marriages in 2023 and the fact that 2024 was the auspicious Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, with some parents waiting to conceive in the hope of giving birth to a "dragon baby."
In 2023, China saw marriage registrations rise for the first time in nearly a decade.
But demographers predict that China's birth figures are likely to resume their downward trend in 2025.
Chinese authorities have introduced a range of pro-marriage and pro-birth policies, though the measures have often had a limited effect and have sometimes stirred discussion about the extent of government meddling in people's lives.
Last year, Dali Bai autonomous prefecture in southwestern China's Yunnan province announced it would set up a task force and hold dating events to "tackle the marriage problems" faced by its large number of local bachelors aged over 35.
Read the full story at SCMP.