Beijing (TDI): China witnessed just over 6.1 million couples register their marriages in 2024, a big drop compared to last year. That’s about 20.5% lower than 2023, based on data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs.
This puts the marriage rate at 4.3 per thousand people. On the flip side, around 3.5 million couples got divorced in 2024. Out of those, about 2.6 million went through civil registration, and around 891,000 were handled by courts, either through rulings or mediations. The overall divorce rate stood at 2.5 per thousand.
Interestingly, China made some rule changes earlier in the year. In May, new marriage registration laws came into effect. These updates were aimed at simplifying the process. For example, people no longer need a household registration booklet to apply that used to be a must-have document for couples.
Read More: China Summons Nvidia Over Security Concerns in H20 Chips
Despite the effort to make it easier, marriage numbers kept sliding. In just the first quarter of 2024, there were 1.81 million marriage registrations, which is 8% less than the same period last year.
Read More: China Reaffirms Commitment to Global AI Cooperation
There was a short-lived increase in 2023 after nearly a decade of decline. But in 2024, the numbers fell again. In fact, the number of marriages hit the lowest point in over four decades since 1980.
Farkhund Yousafzai is an Associate Editor at The Diplomatic Insight.
