Marriages in China fall, add to demographic woes

The number of marriage registrations in China has fallen for seven consecutive years and hit a 17-year low last year, figures from the recently released China Statistical Yearbook 2021 showed.

A total of 5.87 million couples got married in China in the first three quarters of 2021, down slightly from the same period of last year, according to the data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

It is expected that the number of marriage registrations in China will continue to decline in 2021, state-run China Daily reported on Wednesday.

This is in addition to the falling birth rates. The birth rate in China last year was 0.852 per cent, falling below one per cent for the first time since 1978, figures from the China Statistical Yearbook 2021 book revealed.

As the demographic crisis deepened, China has permitted all couples to have two children in 2016, scrapping the draconian decades-old one-child policy and revised it this year permitting three children, which however drew a poor response.

The decision to permit the third child came after the latest once-in-a-decade census showed that China’s population grew at the slowest pace to 1.412 billion amid official projections that the decline may begin as early as next year.

Outlining the reasons for the falling marriage registrations, He Yafu, a demographic expert identified decline in the number of young people in China as one of the reasons.