Marriage registrations in China drop for the first nine months of 2024
BEIJING—China, which has been releasing a slew of measures to bolster its sagging population levels, recorded a drop in marriage registrations for the first nine months of 2024, according to official data from Ministry of Civil Affairs.
For the first three quarters of the year, 4.747 million couples were registered nationwide, the data showed. That is a year-on-year decrease of 943,000, a Reuters calculation of the data showed.
The government released the latest data on Friday. In 2023, 5.690 million marriage registrations were recorded for the first nine months, an increase from 2022.
Growing economic uncertainty and rising living costs across the country have forced many young couples to delay marriage, a troubling sign for lawmakers who have been pushing policies to boost a shrinking population.
Simpler rules
China recently revised a draft law that makes it simpler for couples to register marriages, while filing for divorce will become tougher.
For the first three quarters of 2024, 1.967 million divorces were registered, a slight drop of 6,000 year-over-year, according to the data.
Earlier this year, China reported its second annual drop in nationwide births.
Many young Chinese are opting to stay single or delay getting married due to poor job prospects and worries about the future as growth in the world’s second-largest economy slows.
