The Chinese govt wants the youth to marry, but they don't see the point

Only 6.83 million couples married in China last year and this is the lowest since the government started recording this data in 1986, The Guardian reported. Citing data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the report said that there was a downfall of 800,000 in the number of weddings in 2022 when compared with 2021.

Reportedly, China's marriage rate has declined at a fast pace in the past 10 years. At its peak, China registered 13.5 million tying the knot which is nearly double the last year's figures.

The development has strained the Chinese government and policymakers alike as they struggle to find a cure to reverse the trend of decreasing marriages in the country. Notably, China is also facing a crisis in terms of its birth rates. This has resulted in China's population shrinking for the first time in the last sixty years. This is causing apprehensions that China will grow old before it becomes rich, the TG report added.

Suggesting a possible remedy to the situation, an influential economist, James Liang said that China's schooling should be cut short by two years to give women "a few extra years to start a family and have children", The Guardian report said. The economist said that this measure could give China as much as 30 per cent boost in its population.

Under Xi Jinping's regime, the Chinese government has taken steps to encourage women to marry young and raise more children. However, govt measures seem to have little effect on the ground as the average first-time marriage age for women has increased from 24 to 29 years during this period.

In 2016, China abolished its one-child policy in favour of more babies. The govt is now encouraging women to raise as many as three kids, TG reported. Local governments are also taking steps and devising policies to facilitate population expansion. To this end, free IVF facilities and subsidies for second and third children are being provided.

The incentives to marry fail to convince young Chinese who are facing unemployment on a large scale. Given the ageing population of China, there is also a dearth of people of marriageable age, The Guardian report said.