According to the latest quarterly statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of marriages in China in 2022 will be 6.833 million pairs, 803,000 pairs fewer than the previous year, down 10.5 percent. This data set a new low since 1986 (the Ministry of Civil Affairs website published data since 1986).
On June 9, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs released civil affairs statistics for the fourth quarter of 2022. In 2022, China’s marriage registration data was 6.833 million pairs, down 10.5% from the total number of 7.636 million pairs in 2021; 2.10 million pairs divorces were registered, down 1.8 percent from the previous year.
This is after falling below the 9 million pairs mark in 2020 and 8 million pairs mark in 2021, the marriage registration data fell below the 7 million pairs mark again. This is the lowest since 1986. The decline in marriage registrations is related to a decline in the number of young people. China’s population at the end of 2022 was 1,411.175 million, down 850,000 from the previous year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Jan 17. This is the first time since 1962 that China’s population has recorded negative growth.
Dong Yuzheng, a population expert and special researcher at the Guangdong Provincial Government Counselor’s Office, told “First Finance and Economics” that the age of first marriage is being delayed, with most people getting married and starting a family at the age of 27 or older.
Experts pointed out that from the subjective factors, the change of ideas is an important aspect, the current young people’s concept of marriage and fertility has changed a lot, single, unmarried, infertility has gradually increased the trend.
Dong Yuzheng believes that nowadays many people do not want to get married, there are many factors that do not want to get married, including: the stability of marriage in real life, which affects young people’s yearning for marriage; Young people’s views on marriage have changed, and many no longer regard marriage and childbirth as a compulsory course in life; In addition, the rising cost of marriage in real life will also affect young people’s choice of marriage.
Today, China is facing the challenge of an aging population due to the “one child policy” implemented in the late 1970s, which only allowed one family to have one child.
In 2013, the authorities relaxed restrictions to address the problems that arose. Couples in which at least one of the spouses was an only child were allowed to have a second child, and later in 2016, all couples were allowed to have children. In the summer of 2021, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress approved an amendment to the Population and Family Planning Law that legally allows families to have a third child and removes all fines and payments previously foreseen.
However, these measures did not trigger a baby boom, on the contrary, the number of births has decreased year by year. According to the latest data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, in 2022, China’s population fell for the first time in 60 years to 141,175.