The number of new marriages registered in China this year will hit the lowest level on record, according to official data and expert forecasts. Some 4.74 million Chinese couples got married in the first three quarters of 2024. That number represented a 16.6 percent decrease from 5.69 million in the same period last year. Beijing is also worried by the falling birth rate as marriages are registered.
The number of new marriages registered in China is expected to fall to the lowest level on record this year, according to official data. The country’s demographic crisis is deepening despite a sweeping government campaign to encourage marriage and boost births. The decline in marriages and births is a major problem for Beijing, which is increasingly concerned about the impact of a shrinking workforce and an aging population on the country’s slowing economy. According to data released on Friday, about 4.74 million Chinese couples got married in the first three quarters of 2024, a 16.6 percent drop from 5.69 million in the same period last year. The peak in the 44-year data was seen in 2013 with 13 million marriages, before bottoming out at 6.83 million in 2022. Chinese demographers predict that the number of new marriages in 2024 will be even lower. The recovery in marriage rates after the lifting of strict Covid restrictions last year appears to be an exception, largely due to pent-up demand. THE POPULATION IS DECREASING The population of mainland China, which was 1.411 billion in 2022, had declined to 1.409 billion in 2023. Beijing is also concerned about the falling birth rate along with the marriages registered. Last year’s births were the lowest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Birth rates in China have been falling since the one-child policy was introduced in the late 1980s to control the population. In an effort to halt the decline, the government ended the one-child policy in 2015 and called on couples to have at least two children.
