The number of marriage registrations across China hit a record low of 6.83 million in 2022 since 1986. An independent demographer has attributed the decline to multiple reasons such as the decrease of young population, the unbalanced gender ratio of marriageable population, and the changed marriage concepts of the younger generations.
According to the civil affairs statistics of the fourth quarter of 2022 released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs, a total of 6.83 million couples registered their marriages in 2022, down from the 7.63 million in 2021, a record low since 1986 when the ministry started to release the marriage registration data.
According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of marriage registrations in China has been declining year by year since 2014. In 2013, 13.46 million couples tied the knots, which dropped below 10 million in 2019. In 2021, the number further dropped below 8 million. In 2022, the number of marriage registrations nationwide decreased by 803,000 couples, a drop of about 10.5 percent.
The data for the first quarter of 2023 has not yet been disclosed.
Meanwhile in terms of divorce registrations, 2.1 million couples divorced in 2022, a decrease of about 1.8 percent from the number of 2.13 million couples in 2021, according to the statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
According to independent demographer He Yafu, the number of marriage registrations in 2022 was not just the lowest since 1986, but the lowest since 1980.
