Rate of marriages in China lowest since record keeping began in 1986, with cost of living and pushback against traditional gender roles contributing factors

Summary

China’s marriage rate hit a record low in 2024, with only 6.1 million marriages, a 20% drop from 2023 and the lowest since records began in 1986.

Rising costs, youth unemployment, changing gender roles, and a growing preference for single life contribute to the trend. Government incentives to boost marriage and birth rates have largely failed.

Social attitudes are shifting, with less family pressure to marry, skepticism over restrictive divorce laws, and calls for same-sex marriage recognition.

Experts warn this decline could accelerate China’s demographic and economic challenges.

  • 2ugly2live@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    4 hours ago

    The men are also very picky. Women outnumber men, (Wrong. Men outnumber women by, like, a lot. Don’t ask where I got that from) but they are also looking for a certain age, body type, and background. People are even buying/kidnapping little girls to raise as brides for their sons so they can mold them versus just finding a bride. Half of the time, they don’t want the women available. They’re too old, too fat, too ugly, divorced, have kids, outspoken, and all the other things that they’ve been conditioned to dislike. Also, a lot of women have rough married lives over there.

    Women also belong to the groom’s family in a way. If you “only” have a daughter, you really have one shot (and a clicking clock) for both you and her to pick the “best” family. Society has made it to where a woman is expected to serve her household and handle whatever they throw at her, but then punish them for wanting to pick the cage they’re locking themselves into. Like, yeah, if it’s super hard to get divorced, let alone marry again, and the man/family I’m marrying has a lot of power over me, and I’ll be under the households thumb, I’m going to at least make sure I’m take care of. If their society was more equal, I think they’d be able to marry more for love/desire/want than security. But women over there don’t get a lot of agency so they take it where they can.

    Bith sides are saying “fuck it.” Men don’t want to be wage slaves and women don’t want to be indentured bang maids.

    • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      3 hours ago

      If their society was more equal, I think they’d be able to marry more for love/desire/want than security.

      They’d have that possibility, but in at lot of western countries where that possibility is larger marriage rates are lower than in China.

      • 2ugly2live@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        2 hours ago

        That’s true. But I think that idea kind of… Lingers over a lot of western countries. Like you said, a lot of women have it baked in that whoever they marry needs to be daddy 2.0, but I think some of that comes from the fear of “messing up.” Not that divorced dads are out there dodging 🐈‍⬛ on the daily, but women get a lot of “You picked the wrong guy, so you deserve it” so they panic about picking the “right” one.

        • SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          20 minutes ago

          so they panic about picking the “right” one.

          One of the talking points is that women, when they can freely choose, very often go for the top 10% of men in terms of looks and income. That means of course there will be a lot of disappointment.

          A serious rethinking of a lot of things in society needs to happen. Relationships and children are one part of this.