cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/1920159

Marriages in China plummeted by a fifth last year, the biggest drop on record, despite manifold efforts by authorities to encourage young couples to wed and have children to boost the country’s declining population.

Declining interest in getting married and starting a family has long been blamed on the high cost of childcare and education in China. On top of that, sputtering economic growth over the past few years has made it difficult for university graduates to find work and those that do have jobs feel insecure about their long-term prospects.

More than 6.1 million couples registered for marriage last year, down from 7.68 million a year earlier, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.

“Unprecedented! Even in 2020, due to Covid-2019, marriages only decreased by 12.2%,” said Yi Fuxian, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He noted that the number of marriages in China last year was less than half of the 13.47 million in 2013.

If this trend continues, “the Chinese government’s political and economic ambitions will be ruined by its demographic Achilles’ heel,” he added.

  • randomnameOP
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    1 day ago

    Yes, in general this is the trend. In China, however, we’ve seen this within an extremely short period of time. As I said earlier, you can’t compare different countries with that, especially if we make inferences to population growth and declines.

      • CookieOfFortune@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I feel to a certain degree the bridal industry did this to itself. It’s like 3-4x the cost when a good or service is for a wedding. They’re getting more expensive while the general population is not making more money. Maybe the really high end places can get away with it, but at some point people will just say it isn’t worth it.

        • Spacehooks@reddthat.com
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          1 day ago

          I just went to bridal show, literally everyone there was pushing services outside of just wedding. Writing is on the wall. It’s going to be a status thing soon.