Latest statistics from China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs reveal that the number of Chinese couples who got married in the first half of 2024 fell to its lowest level since 2013 as more young people in the country deferred nuptials amid a worsening economy and a rise in living costs.
Official data shows 3.43 million Chinese couples got married during the first half of this year, down by 498,000 couples during the same period from last year (2023) and a record low of the same period since 2013, based on which a demographic expert predicted that the annual figure of marriage registrations in 2024 will fall to a record low since 1980, reports China’s state-run Global Times.
The country’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released the latest statistics on marriage and divorce registrations during the first and second quarters of this year, showing 3.43 million couples get married and 1.27 million get divorced, reports Global Times.
According to China’s state-owned domestic news portal thepaper.cn, the number of marriage registrations during the first half of 2024 dropped by 498,000 couples from 3.92 million couples during the same period of last year and the number of divorce registrations decreased by 43,000 couples from 1.31 million couples during the same period of last year.
The number of marriage registrations in China during the first half of 2024 also dropped to a record low since 2014, as per data shared by the Chinese authorities.
Statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs also revealed that the number of marriage registrations during the first half of the year have been decreasing for multiple years, from 6.94 million during the first half of 2014 gradually dropping to 3.73 million during the first half of 2022, while the number rallied slightly in 2023 with 3.92 million couple getting married during the first half of 2023, reports Global Times.
Global Times reported, citing an independent demographic expert who tracks marriage registration data, that based on the historical records of marriage registration, the annual number of marriage registrations in 2024 will drop to a record low since 1980.
Meanwhile, The Epoch Times reported, quoting a lawyer in China, that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) economic development model has led to poverty and too much debt for people, and young people can’t afford to have families and their expectations for family happiness are very low.
“Because [people are] living in a very bad economy, it’s impossible to talk about quality of life and happiness. Even if they have jobs, young people can only make ends meet, and they dare not expect to support their families, so they dare not get married, let alone have children. This is the true situation China faces,” the lawyer told The Epoch Times.
The Epoch Times reported, quoting artist Ji Feng — the leader of the June 4, 1989, student democratic movement in Guizhou Province — that the Chinese communist regime cannot reverse the current situation.
“If the marriage rate continues to be low, the population will decline and shrink, and then there will be a cultural disconnect. The impact will be too great. There will be no successors for the labour force and talents, and the economy will continue to decline,” Ji told the publication.
Chen Ying-Hsuan, an associate research fellow at Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), told The Epoch Times that one of the main reasons for the low marriage rate in 2024 is the high cost of getting married and the sluggish Chinese economy.
“The low marriage rate will lead to the problem of low birth rate. The current social atmosphere in China still requires marriage to have children. Therefore, it is expected that China’s birth rate is bound to decline next year, and the population under the age of 20 may fall below 100 million,” she was quoted as saying. “This has also led to subsequent problems such as foreign marriages, the continued decline of the housing market, and more serious conflicts between men and women.”
In 2023, the Chinese Communist regime admitted that the country’s population recorded negative growth for the first time in 61 years, decreasing by 850,000 in 2022.
However, the Communist party’s official numbers are often questioned by the international community, including the country’s Covid-19 death toll, due to its lack of transparency.
The CCP is suspected of downplaying its population decline by experts on Chinese population issues, reports the newspaper.
According to Hung Ming-te, an associate research fellow at Taiwan-based think tank Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), the negative population growth in China is a major contributing factor to the low marriage data this year.
Hung, in INDSR’s 2023 annual report on the Development of the CCP’s Politics and Military, spent a chapter analysing the population decline of China and its grave long-lasting impact.
The research fellow said that China’s low marriage number in 2024 is related to an overall population drop in China.
Pointing out that China only officially admitted having more deaths than new-borns in 2022, Hung told the paper, “The huge death toll of Covid-19 in China being covered up is a big factor. … That’s why the outside world thinks that China’s negative population growth is more serious [than the CCP admitted].”
Chinese state-run Global Times reported, quoting an independent demographic expert, that due to factors such as the decrease in the young population and low childbirth intentions, the declining trend in China’s birth rate in the long run will be difficult to fundamentally change unless substantial childbirth support policies are implemented in the future to address this challenge.
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