In 2021, China recorded the fewest marriages (7.64 million), the fewest in over three decades, and this latest setback to efforts to increase the nation’s steadily declining birth rate as the government works to stave off an impending demographic crisis.
In China, marriages and births are tightly related, and the declining number of marriages—the fewest since China started publishing the data in 1986—will probably have an even greater impact on government initiatives to increase birth rates.
According to economists, the declining marriage rate would also have an effect on economic growth.
The data revealed a 6.1% decrease from 2020; the number has now decreased for eight straight years and has, for the first time since 2003, dropped below the annual threshold of eight million marriages.
“The report revealed that an increasing percentage of Chinese individuals are delaying marriage. In 2021, a record number of couples—nearly half—were 30 years of age or older. According to the news website Caixin, 19.5% of the population were above 40.
The overwhelming pressure to find a job that pays well enough to support a family, according to Yang Jinrui, deputy head of China’s national health commission’s (NHC) population surveillance and family development department, has caused most people under 30 to put off getting married.
People born in the 1990s and 2000s, who make up the majority of individuals who might get married or have children now, have lengthier educations and are under more employment pressure, he said.
According to Yang, the situation has caused more of them to decide to put off getting married or never get married.
A research presented on Friday at the ongoing 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) revealed another development: Beijing has since 2021 reached the stage of a “moderately aged society,” according to state news agency Xinhua.
The information was included in a report that the Beijing Association on Aging and the city working committee on ageing jointly produced.
According to the most recent census in 2021, there are about 21 million people living in Beijing.
According to the survey, more than 4.4 million of Beijing’s permanent residents — or more than one-fifth of the entire population — were 60 years of age or older by the end of last year.
According to the media, this makes 2021 the year with the biggest increase and the highest growth rate in the population of people 65 and older during the previous five years.
According to the research, one elderly person in Beijing is supported by an average of 2.1 registered workers, or “if the registered population aged 15 to 59 is supposed to support the registered population aged 60 and above.”
When between 20 and 30% of the population is 60 years or older, or when between 14 and 20% of the population is 65 years or older, an area is considered to have a moderately ageing society.
