China records 10-year low in first marriages

The number of first marriages in China reached 9.1723 million last year, the first time the figure fell below 10 million over the past decade, according to official data.

From 2014 to 2024, except for 2023, the number of first marriages showed a year-on-year decline. In 2024, the number of first marriages decreased by 2.77 million, or 23.18 percent, compared to the previous year, both data marking the largest drop in the past decade, according to the China Statistical Yearbook 2025 recently published by the National Statistics Bureau.

Compared with 2013, the number of first marriages in 2024 dropped by 14.69 million, representing a decline of 61.57 percent.

In terms of the number of marriage registrations, there were 13.469 million couples registered in 2013, while in 2024, there were only 6.106 million, a drop of 54.7 percent.

According to demographics scholar He Yafu, the decline can be attributed to two main reasons: the reduction in the young population and the rise in the unmarried rate.

As per data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the age group with the highest number of marriages in recent years is 25-34 years old. In 2024, the population aged 25-34 was born between 1990 and 1999. According to the seventh national population census, in 2020, the population aged 31-40 (born between 1980 and 1989) was 215 million, while the population aged 21-30 (born between 1990 and 1999) was only 178 million.

According to the China Population and Employment Statistical Yearbook 2024, the unmarried rate among 30-year-olds in 2023 was 29.97 percent. In contrast, the same data in 2013 was only 14.56 percent, as per the China Population and Employment Statistical Yearbook 2014. It means the unmarried rate among 30-year-olds has increased by about 15 percentage points over the past decade.