Chinese population registering for their first marriages dropped to bellow 11 million for the first time in 2022, a 55.9 percent decrease from the peak of 23.85 million in 2013 over the consecutive past nine years. Experts think it’s a comprehensive result from the decrease of young people of marriageable ages and some people’s waning desire to get married.
According to China Statistical Yearbook 2023 published by the National Bureau of Statistics, 10.51 million people registered their first marriage in 2022, a decrease of 1.06 million from the number in 2021, accounting for a 9.16 percent drop. It was also the first time that the Chinese population registering for their first marriage dropped to below 11 million, according to a report by yicai.com.
The number of those getting married has been continuously decreasing in recent years and Chinese people have been putting off their registration for the first marriage to later ages. Statistics show that 6.83 million Chinese couples tied the knot in 2022, a drop of 10.6 percent from 2021. Statistics of the newborns over the past forty years show that China’s birth rate has been declining for consecutive multiple years after reaching its peak in 1987.
Last year, the number of marriage registrations recorded a historic low since 1980, thus it was unsurprising that the population of first marriage also dropped to a record low, He Yafu, an independent demographer, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Besides, statistics shows that Chinese people got married for the first time at 28.67 years old on average in 2020, an increase of 3.78 years compared with the 24.89 years old in 2010, according to yicai.com. Demographer Dong Yuzheng told yicai.com that multiple factors have contributed to the situation that nowadays many young people are not eager to get married, including the perceived instability of marriages that affects young people’s aspirations toward marriage; changing views on marriage among the younger generation, with many no longer considering marriage and childbearing as a mandatory experience in life; and the rising costs of marriage.
中国首次结婚的人口在2022年首次降至不到1100万，与2013年的2385万的峰值相比，连续九年下降了55.9％。专家认为，这是由于适婚年龄的年轻人减少以及一些人对结婚的欲望减弱的综合结果。
根据国家统计局发布的2023年《中国统计年鉴》，2022年有1051万人登记了他们的第一次婚姻，比2021年的数字减少了106万，下降了9.16％。这也是中国首次结婚的人口首次降至1100万以下，根据yicai.com的报告。
近年来，结婚的人数一直在持续下降，中国人也一直推迟首次结婚的登记年龄。统计数据显示，2022年有683万对中国夫妇结婚，比2021年下降了10.6％。
尽管结婚登记的人数包括首次结婚和再婚的人，但前者与新生儿的统计数据更相关。
从总体上看，首次结婚人口的下降是由多种因素引起的，例如适婚人口的减少，首次结婚年龄的推迟以及人们对婚姻和关系的态度变化。
过去四十年的新生儿统计数据显示，中国的出生率在1987年达到峰值后连续多年下降。
去年，婚姻登记数创下自1980年以来的历史新低，因此，首次结婚人口也下降到历史新低，独立人口统计学家何亚夫在周日告诉《环球时报》时表示，这并不令人意外。
此外，根据yicai.com的数据，统计显示，2020年中国人的平均首次结婚年龄为28.67岁，比2010年的24.89岁增加了3.78年。
人口统计学家董宇正告诉yicai.com，多种因素导致了当今许多年轻人不急于结婚的情况，包括影响年轻人对婚姻愿望的婚姻不稳定性；年轻一代对婚姻观念的变化，许多人不再将婚姻和生育视为生活中的强制经历；以及婚姻成本的上升。
