BEIJING: China recorded its lowest number of marriages during the last over three decades since public records became available, extending a nearly decade-long decline in matrimony that has coincided with dropping birth rates and increased government concern about a demographic crisis.
Nearly 6.83 million couples married in 2022, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs’ data showed on Friday.
According to the state media, that was down nearly 10.5 percent from the 7.63 million marriage registrations a year ago and marks a record fall since 1986, when the ministry started releasing statistics.
The data represents marriage records during an unusually difficult year for people in China, as the government’s strict Covid-19 restrictions saw many cities and districts locked down and daily life badly disrupted by a host of bans, CNN reported.
But it also furthered what has been a continuous decline in people choosing to marry since a 2013 peak, when over 13 million couples married – almost double the 2022 nuptials.
Dropping numbers of marriages – and a big decline in births – have garnered considerable attention from the government amid expert predictions of a serious economic impact from aging population and a shrinking workforce.
China’s population
China’s population drped in 2022 for the first time in more than sixty years, with just 6.77 births per one thousand people – the lowest level since the establishment of Communist China in 1949. China now the world’s second most populous country, with its 1.4 billion people falling behind the South Asian country India, according to the UN.
Chinese authorities see a direct link between fewer marriages and ding birth rates in the country, where social norms and laws make it difficult for unmarried couples to have children.
Authorities have taken measures to try and reverse the drop amid economic pressures impacting China’s young adults, including the rising cost of living and high unemployment.
