The number of marriages contracted every year in China has gone down more than 40 percent since 2013. Photo: AFP
Analysts say the economic cost of Chinese couples putting off marriage and having children is so high that it threatens to upend decades of rapid growth, which has turned the country of 1.4 billion people into the second-largest economy in the world within a short span of time. “The demographic dividend has been one of the most influential factors in China's economic development,” says Gary Ng, senior economist for Asia Pacific at Hong Kong-based Natixis Corporate and Investment Banking.
The only exception in an otherwise steady decline in the number of marriages a year in recent times was 2023. COVID-related lockdowns and bad economic conditions in China resulted in too few marriages in 2022, which led to a year-on-year increase in the subsequent year. “Even if the couples do get married, it is likely that most families will have fewer children than before,” he said.that the country’s birth rate, which reflects the number of live births per thousand people every year, has dropped by more than half in the last ten years to 6.39.