Marriage decline reveals changing social priorities

Marriage registrations in China in the first half of 2026 fell to a record low of 3.275 million, a retreat from the modest recovery made in 2025 over the previous year and marking the weakest January-June tally since 2014, from when comparable data is available.

Data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Wednesday showed that the number of marriages taking place in the first half of the year dropped by 264,000 from 3.539 million during the same period last year.

The decline undoes a 2025 first-half rebound, when registrations rose by 109,000 from a 2024 low of 3.43 million.

Divorce registrations, by contrast, edged up 52,000 year-on-year to 1.383 million in the first half of 2026.

Demographers cautioned that the half-year figures offer only a partial picture, and that marriages in the first half of the year typically account for 51 to 56 percent of the annual total.

The year's outcome will largely depend on peak seasonal windows, including Wednesday's Qixi Festival — considered China's Valentine's Day — for which marriage registration bookings are full across many cities, and the National Day holiday in October, a popular time for wedding registrations.

Yang Yifan, a professor at Southwest Jiaotong University, who serves on the expert committee of the China National Working Commission on Aging, said the dual trend of falling marriages and rising divorces stems from long-term structural shifts rather than short-term fluctuations.

A shrinking pool of people aged 20 to 40 — driven by years of low fertility — and the evolving social attitudes of this age group have weighed on new marriage numbers, he said.

Zhang Jing, a family studies expert at Beijing University of Technology's Gengdan Institute, said that young people nowadays face a "double squeeze" — high financial and emotional costs of marriage and parenting, along with the urge to experience life to the fullest and social media engagement — all of which leave little bandwidth for marriage.

Liu Ruini, a senior partner at Shaanxi Bingrui Law Firm and a specialist in divorce cases, attributed the steady rise in the number of divorces​ to evolving marital expectations​ and growing female independence.

Modern couples prioritize emotional resonance, equitable value exchange and solid material foundations over simply living together, said Liu, adding that better-educated, financially independent women have been increasingly filing for divorce after relationships failed to meet their upgraded quality-of-life standards.

Pro-family measures

Revised marriage rules that took effect in May 2025 did away with the household registration requirement, allowing couples to tie the knot anywhere without providing household registration booklets.

Authorities have also introduced measures in recent years to make registration more accessible, including setting up pop-up registration booths at music festivals. In a pilot initiative, a bank branch in Tianjin has been designated as a registration outlet, catering to couples who often need bank-issued asset documents to register their marriage.

Yang, from Southwest Jiaotong University, said that easing administrative hurdles has had limited success in boosting marriage numbers, as it improves procedural efficiency without addressing the underlying reluctance to marry.

To reverse the downward trend, he called for systematic, life-cycle support for marriage and childbearing, including housing subsidies, child care allowances and expanded public nursery services, to relieve the strain on family budgets.

Zhang, from Beijing University of Technology, advocated a multipronged policy framework to support marriage and family raising. Her proposals include integrating traditional family culture into adolescent mental health education and establishing community-based family counseling.

lilei@chinadaily.com.cn