The number of marriage registrations fell to 6.1 million, according to statistics released by China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs on Saturday, after a post-pandemic increase to nearly 7.7 million in 2023. The tally for last year marks the fewest marriages since public records began in 1986 and is less than half the peak reached in 2013.

The failure to encourage more people to tie the knot in the country of 1.4 billion people represents a challenge for a government struggling to arrest China’s sharp drop in births. A marriage certificate if typically required to register new babies, though some localities have moved to scrap the requirement so single parents or unmarried couples can enjoy the same rights as married ones. 

“Marriage has been falling out of favor, particularly with younger people, due to high costs, the sluggish economy and evolving attitudes toward traditional marriages,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Ada Li said in a report. 

Registrations may also have suffered last year because 2024 was an inauspicious year for marriage — known as a “Widow Year.” Some 2.6 million people also filed for divorce, up 1.1% from 2023, the data showed. 

China’s population shrank for the third straight year in 2024, even though births rose slightly. Some of the improvement was attributed to the belief that the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese zodiac is lucky for having children. 

Even so, last year saw the second-lowest number of births since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, underscoring a persistent long-term risk for the economy as a shrinking workforce puts a strain on growth. 

The number of marriages has been in a near-constant state of decline over the past decade, with the annual figure dropping below 10 million in 2019. In a speech last October, President Xi Jinping called for giving stronger guidance to young people in shaping their attitude toward marriage, childbearing and family. 

In August, China proposed a draft law that made it easier to register for marriages and tougher to file for divorce, provoking a wave of public backlash, with netizens questioning the intention of the authorities. 

The topic of China’s steep drop in marriage registrations last year was trending China’s social media platform Weibo on Monday, where some of the top comments pointed to the financial strains involved in getting married. 

In the words of one user, “life is already so tiring. Who has the courage to get married?” 

Another comment read: “Getting married is a big expense. I suddenly felt this year that it’s pretty good being single, I don’t have such big pressure and can spend the money I earned myself.”