BBC News｜中国结婚人数创历史新低

Marriages in China hit record low

New figures on marriage rates in China make worrying reading for the Chinese Communist Party, which has long tried to reverse the country's declining and aging population. Marriages fell by a fifth last year, a new low. Divorces also saw a slight increase. To unpack this further, let's cross to our China media analyst, Kerry Allen.

If there's one main cause in China for marriage rates being really, really quite small now -  I mean, 6.1 million marriages were registered in 2024 - it's the one child policy, which was in place between the years 1979 and 2015. It meant that parents could only have one child and it means now that the younger demographic are much, much smaller than the older demographic. So there's simply fewer people who are young who are able to get married. But that's just one reason.

There have been a number of other factors in recent years that have meant that marriage rates have dropped. The government's blamed the COVID 19 pandemic, saying that people have not been able to go out and meet potential partners.

There are other reasons as well. China's younger, working much more overtime nowadays due to a shrinking population. So they're not having time to go out and meet people. There are also social concerns, concerns about domestic violence. For example,  a lot of young people, young women, don't want to be trapped in an abusive relationship.

And there are as a whole just changing social attitudes towards marriage. Some people want to pursue further education or climb the employment ladder and marriage is no longer a high priority.

What's the government doing about it?

Well, it's tried to offer lots of different incentives. So in little villages you can buy a house for much cheaper if you're married. Things like this are happening. And the government's really tried to make it clear that this is a big priority. It wants people to get married in order to have more children so that there is a much bigger, younger demographic.

But it's just something that young people are just not that interested in. I mean, young women are concerned that they might be forced back into traditional roles. You see a lot of comments on social media that young women are saying that they're concerned they're being turned back into baby making machines.

And young men as well. I mean, they think that weddings are expensive and there are these traditional expectations that you have to buy a house as a prerequisite for marriage if you're male. And youth unemployment's been, well, it's Saturday, around 20% for the last few years. So a lot of young men are quite poor and the idea that they need to save towards a marriage, it's very low on their priority list.

If this trend line continues though, it's pointing at a very scary future.

It is, yes. There are a lot of concerns. I mean, this is why the government has really tried to ramp up this marriage message in recent years, because the older demographic, there's nobody to look after them. So there's this concern that, you know, who's going to look after the population over the age of 60. And already now over 21% of China's population is over 60.

And not only that, there's a shrinking labor market, because, yeah, you've got a situation where there are fewer young people to fill in behind the jobs left by the older demographics. So who's going to look after the older demographic and who's going to do the job?

词汇表
marriage rate 结婚率
Chinese Communist Party ['kɒmjʊnɪst] 中国共产党，中共
reverse [rɪˈvɜː(r)s] 扭转，推翻，彻底改变
declining / shrinking population  [dɪ'klaɪnɪŋ][ʃrɪŋkɪŋ] 人口下降，人口减少
aging population ['eɪdʒɪŋ] 人口老龄化
unpack [ʌn'pæk] 分析，剖析，说明
cross to 连线到，切换到，转到（嘉宾或节目环节）
analyst [ˈænəlɪst] 分析者，分析师
register [ˈredʒɪstə(r)] 登记，注册
one child policy 一胎政策，独生子女政策
demographic [ˌdeməˈɡræfɪk] 群体，人口，人口统计数据
COVID 19 pandemic [ˌkəʊvɪd][pæn'demɪk] 新冠疫情
work overtime [ˈəʊvə(r)ˌtaɪm] 加班
domestic violence [də'mestɪk] 家庭暴力
abusive relationship [əˈbjuːsɪv] 虐待性关系（指亲密关系中身体、情感或心理上的虐待或控制）
pursue further education [pə(r)ˈsjuː] 继续深造
climb the employment ladder [ˈlædə(r)] 在职场上晋升
high priority [praɪˈɒrəti] 高优先级，优先考虑的事情
incentive [ɪn'sentɪv] 激励，刺激，鼓励（措施、手段）
baby making machine 生育机器
prerequisite [priːˈrekwəzɪt] 前提，先决条件，必备条件
ramp up [ræmp] 加强，增加，提升
labor market 劳动力市场
fill in behind  填补空缺，接替工作

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