Newlyweds register their marriage in Hohhot, North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on June 1, 2023, the first day that China expanded an inter-provincial marriage registration pilot program to allow people living outside their household registration province to register their marriages where they live. Photo: VCG

The number of marriage registrations across China hit a record low of 6.83 million in 2022 since 1986. An independent demographer has attributed the decline to multiple reasons such as the decrease of young population, the unbalanced gender ratio of marriageable population, and the changed marriage concepts of the younger generations. 

According to the civil affairs statistics of the fourth quarter of 2022 released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, a total of 6.83 million couples registered their marriages in 2022, down from the 7.63 million in 2021, a record low since 1986 when the ministry started to release the marriage registration data. 

According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of marriage registrations in China has been declining year by year since 2014. In 2013, 13.46 million couples tied the knots, which dropped below 10 million in 2019. In 2021, the number further dropped below 8 million. In 2022, the number of marriage registrations nationwide decreased by 803,000 couples, a drop of about 10.5 percent. 

The data for the first quarter of 2023 has not yet been disclosed.

Meanwhile in terms of divorce registrations, 2.1 million couples divorced in 2022, a decrease of about 1.8 percent from the number of 2.13 million couples in 2021, according to the statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs. 

According to independent demographer He Yafu, the number of marriage registrations in 2022 was not just the lowest since 1986, but the lowest since 1980.   

Since 1978, the year with the highest number of marriage registrations was 2013. From 2014 to 2022, the number of marriage registrations and marriage rates in China have been declining for nine years in a row, He told the Global Times on Sunday.  

One of the reasons for the declining of marriage registrations is the declining number of young people, He said, noting that according to the population census data in 2020, the living population of people born in the 1980s, also known as the post-80s generation, were 215 million, that of the post-90s was 178 million, and that of the post-00s was 155 million.  

The second reason is there are more men than women in the marriageable population. According to the data from the seventh national population census, there were 17.52 million more men than women in the age group of 20 to 40 years old. 

The third reason is the postponed average age at first marriage. The average age at first marriage for men had risen to 29.38 years old in 2020 from 25.75 years old in 2010 and the average age at first marriage for women had risen to 27.95 years old in 2020 from 24 years old in 2010, according to He.  

Besides, the high costs of getting married, including property prices and the betrothal gifts from the bridegroom to the bride's family, is another factor that contributes to the decline in marriage registrations.  

In addition, there has been a shift in the marriage attitudes among the younger generation, with more and more young people choosing not to marry or have children for various reasons.