China sees sharp drop in marriages amid economic downturn

Chen Zifei for RFA Mandarin

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The number of couples getting married in China fell rapidly in the first nine months of 2024 by nearly 1 million registrations compared to last year, official statistics show, amid an economic slump and changing attitudes toward marriage.

China registered 4.747 million marriages in the three quarters ending Sept. 30, a drop of 943,000 year-on-year.

First marriages have plummeted by nearly 56% over the past nine years, according to the 2023 China Statistical Yearbook. The trend is contributing to a sharp decline in birth-rates amid a shrinking, aging population.

Young people are increasingly avoiding marriage, having children and buying a home amid a tanking economy and rampant youth unemployment, they told RFA Mandarin in recent interviews.

A 23-year-old student from China who gave only the nickname Tom for fear of reprisals said most of his friends and acquaintances have no plans to marry anytime soon.

“There’s a popular saying on the Chinese internet that marriage is the death of love, which doesn’t need a certificate,” Tom said. “This is a trend among young people right now.”

“They believe more in their own feelings, and they don’t want to be tied down by marriage,” he said, adding that a good proportion of young people in today’s China now have divorced parents, making them more cautious about tying the knot.

Another barrier is the sheer expense, he said, citing the customary “bride price” paid by the groom’s side of the family.

“With the economy in recession, a lot of young men just can’t afford the bride price,” Tom said. “And the worse the economy is, the more women want to marry as a lifeline to achieve their goals, and when the men have less money, it’s a vicious cycle.”

Consequence of the ‘one-child’ policy?

Another student, who gave only the nickname Emily for fear of reprisals, said many of the young women were raised under the “one-child” policy, and consequently are used to being loved and cherished by their parents.

It’s a mindset that’s in sharp contrast to the older view of daughters as being less important than sons.

“The one-child policy has given some women today the chance to experience things they never would have before,” Emily said. “I don’t think any parents of an only child would think it was OK for their daughter to marry just anyone.”

“Also, a lot of them have their own property and access to assets from their families … and nobody thinks now that a woman has to marry, as they did in the past,” she said. “Women don’t want to marry like they used to, because what do they gain?”

She said few women of her age are interested in fulfilling the government’s desire to boost birth rates, either.

“To put it bluntly, the only reason the government cares if we marry or not is … because they want young people to have kids,” Emily said. While young people may say they agree with the government’s policies, they actually lack the money, social resources and access to medical care that they would need to start a family.

Backlash

Current affairs commentator Fang Yuan said the lack of willingness to marry is partly due to a backlash against government propaganda.

“The authorities are trying to treat young people as baby machines, which is inhumane, and ignore what they need in order to get married,” Fang said. “In some places, they’ve started sending out [officials] to knock on doors and try to persuade people to get married.”

“Such policies promoting marriage just make young people feel a sense of disgust, and that they’re not being treated like human beings, with a lack of basic respect for human nature,” Fang said. “So the young people respond with soft confrontation, with lying flat.\”

According to current affairs commentator Wang Jian, the falling marriage rate will have a direct impact on birth rates.

“The result of the decline in the marriage rate will be that the number of newborns will fall below 8 million next year,” Wang predicted.

“China is a country with a population of 1.4 billion, so what does it mean if the number of newborns falls below 8 million? Primary schools, kindergartens, baby products and milk powder makers — entire industries will collapse because there aren’t that many children in China any more,” he said.

He said the government needs to fix widespread unemployment, housing prices and the cost of education before tackling marriage and birth rates.

Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.