China wants more marriage, but mass weddings and other stunts aren't helping
China’s population is ditching marriage by the millions, as data from the country’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, reported by CNN, reveals that the country recorded 17% fewer marriages in the first nine months of 2024 than in the same period of 2023.
With strong links between the number of marriages and the number of births, the figures will concern China’s leaders.
Officials have spent millions on government-backed programs to encourage the country’s young people to get married and start a family, as it faces a baby shortage that just a couple of generations ago — when the country implemented a one-child policy to rein in its population growth — would have seemed unfathomable.
To encourage marriage, policymakers have drafted changes in regulations that would make it easier to get married and harder to divorce. They’ve also organized events like “mass weddings,” one of which saw more than 5,000 couples tie the knot at a state-sponsored event on September 22, and have worked to rebrand getting married and having kids as a patriotic act.
Go Deeper: Why aren’t people having babies?
Officials have spent millions on government-backed programs to encourage the country’s young people to get married and start a family, as it faces a baby shortage that just a couple of generations ago — when the country implemented a one-child policy to rein in its population growth — would have seemed unfathomable.
To encourage marriage, policymakers have drafted changes in regulations that would make it easier to get married and harder to divorce. They’ve also organized events like “mass weddings,” one of which saw more than 5,000 couples tie the knot at a state-sponsored event on September 22, and have worked to rebrand getting married and having kids as a patriotic act.
Go Deeper: Why aren’t people having babies?
