Official data from the Communist Party of China (CPC) show that the number of marriages on the mainland has been declining for six consecutive years, while the number of registered divorces has been on a continuous rise, which may be one of the reasons for the decline in the number of new births on the mainland.
According to a Feb. 18 report by China First Financial, the number of registered marriages began to decline from 2014, from 13.469 million registered marriages in 2013 to 13.067 million in 2014, after which the number of marriages fell each year, to 12.247 million in 2015, 11.428 million in 2016 and 10.631 million in 2017. In 2018, the number continued to stay above 10 million pairs and fell below the 10 million mark in 2019.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs’ statistical bulletin shows that 9.273 million pairs of marriages were legally registered in 2019, down 8.5% from 2018. The Marriage rate was 6.6 per thousand, down 0.7 thousand points from the previous year.
Compared to the 13.469 million pairs of marriages registered in 2013, the number of married pairs in 2019 decreased by 4.196 million pairs, or 31.2%, compared to 2013.
For the reasons for the lower number of marriages, the report believes that the total number of marriageable people is decreasing, in addition, the average marriage age line is getting higher and higher, and there are more and more people who marry late or even do not marry, and then there are factors such as high housing prices and high economic pressure in big cities, which affect the marriage age of young people.
The first economic province of Guangdong ranked first with 29.34%; Shanghai and Zhejiang are also more than 25%, the second and third; Beijing according to the National Bureau of Statistics sample data, 31 provinces, 8 provinces, 1-person households accounted for more than 20%. With 22.26% ranked fourth.
In rural areas, the burden of the need to buy a house, a car and the bride price to get married soared to millions of yuan, which also makes it difficult for older young men in rural areas to enter into marriage.
And while the number of marriages is falling, the number of divorces on the mainland is also rising.
In 2010, the number of divorces registered on the mainland was 2.678 million, in 2012 it was 3 million, and in 2016 it surpassed 4 million.
Data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs of the Communist Party of China showed that in 2019, 4.711 million pairs of divorces were processed, up 5.4 percent from 2018.
This year, divorce rates are also on the rise in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas on the mainland, the report said, adding that in the 1980s and 1990s, divorce was a very rare event in the traditional rural areas of southern Fujian, said Quanzhou Li, a lawyer. But now, the number of divorces in rural Minnan is also high, and it is often the woman who brings it up first.
For the reasons why young people do not get married, mainland netizens have expressed their views, most of them said the cost of marriage is too high, not because they do not want to get married but can not afford it.
Netizen “gray wolf” said: “Not not married ah, is simply can not afford to marry ah, or play bachelor for Life.”
Netizen “Xiao Guo” said: “Do not rely on Parents, how many young people do you think can save enough millions in their twenties to get married?”
“-&Charles” said, “Prices are too high, wages are too low, there is no happiness, the birth of a child will lose themselves, divorce is very damaging to children, it is better not to get married.”
There are also comments from netizens expressing the anti-traditional concept of not wanting to be responsible and free to be free.
Some comments believe that the decline in the number of marriages and the rise in the number of divorces on the mainland is also one of the reasons for the decline in the birth population on the mainland.
Recently, the decline in the mainland birth population has sparked concern from all walks of life, with news showing a 15% drop in newborns on the mainland in 2020, and some comments suggesting that the mainland population has fallen off a cliff, casting a shadow over the mainland’s economic outlook.
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