Last year, the number of marriage registrations in China dropped by more than 20%, marking the lowest level in 44 years.
According to Bloomberg and Chinese economic media Caixin on the 10th, the Ministry of Civil Affairs of China announced in the "2024 Q4 Civil Affairs Statistics" that 6.106 million couples registered their marriages nationwide last year.
Couples are taking wedding photos in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China. Photo by Reuters and Yonhap News.
This represents a 20.5% decrease compared to 2023, the lowest figure since marriage statistics began to be compiled in 1980, Caixin reported.
The number of marriages in China has been declining annually. After reaching a peak of 13.469 million couples in 2013, the number has fallen for nine consecutive years from 2014 to 2022. In 2019, the number of marriages dropped below 10 million, and in 2022, it fell below 7 million. Although there was a rebound to 7.68 million in 2023, the number declined again in 2024.
Ada Li, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, stated, "Due to high costs, economic recession, and changing attitudes toward traditional marriage, especially among the younger generation, marriage is losing popularity."
He Yafu from the Yu Population Research Institute analyzed that the rebound in marriage registrations in 2023 compared to the previous year was due to many couples postponing marriage because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this effect disappeared in 2024, leading to a decline in marriage registrations again. He noted that since most newborns in China are born within marriage and the rate of out-of-wedlock births is very low, the decrease in marriage registrations in 2024 suggests a decline in births in 2025.
China's population has experienced negative growth for three consecutive years since 2022. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of births in 2024 slightly increased to 9.54 million, but the total population decreased by 1.39 million compared to the previous year.
Chinese authorities have introduced various policies, including support measures, to address the worsening low birthrate and aging population, but these efforts have been ineffective. In August last year, they faced criticism for proposing a legal amendment that would make marriage registration easier while making divorce applications more difficult.
Last year, the number of divorces (mutual consent divorces) in China was 2.621 million, an increase of about 1.1% compared to the previous year.
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