Marriages in China Fall to Lowest Level Since 2013 as Population Declines, Economy Worsens

The number of marriage registrations in China in the first half of the year has fallen to the lowest level since 2013 amid deteriorating economic and political conditions, the latest official data show. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) Ministry of Civil Affairs released the statistics for the second quarter of 2024 on Aug. 2 showing that in the first half of this year, 3.43 million couples got married nationwide, a decrease of 498,000 compared with 3.928 million couples in the first half of 2023, a decrease of 12.7 percent. The number of marriage registrations in the first half of this year hit a new low in recent years, even lower than the 3.732 million couples in the first half of 2022 when the country was under strict COVID-19 lockdown imposed by the regime....