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CV NEWS FEED // China’s marriage rate fell 20.5% in 2024, increasing the challenge a persistently low rate poses for the country’s rapidly aging population.
UCA News reported that 6.1 million couples registered for marriage in 2024, down from 7.7 million in 2023. The decline occurred despite China’s recent pro-family policies designed to improve marriage and birth rates.
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Now, nearly 25% of China’s population is 60 or older. Beijing raised its retirement age in September 2024 to compensate for the aging population.
China’s one-child policy was implemented in the 1980s amid fears of overpopulation and was only changed to a two-child policy in 2016. Couples were allowed to have three children starting in 2021.
UCA News reports that experts cite education and childcare costs as factors that discourage young people from becoming parents. The article quoted one user from the Chinese social media website Weibo who posted about the topic.
“If I don’t rely on my parents, I simply can’t afford to buy a house, and getting married is also a huge expense,” the Weibo user wrote. “This year I suddenly feel that being single is also pretty good. There’s not so much pressure, I earn and spend my own money.”
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