In China, the number of registered marriages has fallen to a record low

The number of marriages registered in the first quarter of 2026 in China was the lowest three-month rate in years of observation, including during the COVID-19 pandemic. This was reported on May 10 by Bloomberg, citing data from the Ministry of Civil Administration of the People's Republic of China.

In the first three months of 2026, about 1.7 million marriages were registered in the country, which is 6.2% lower than in the first three months of 2025. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 2 million marriages were registered in the first quarter of 2020.

At the same time, it is noted that the number of divorces in the country has hardly changed and amounted to about 622 thousand. In 2013, when Beijing began publishing quarterly data, the number of marriages in the first three months was about 4.28 million.

The discrepancy in the figures has brought the divorce-to-marriage ratio closer to historically high levels, "underscoring the demographic pressures facing the world's second-largest economy," the article says.

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In January, it was noted that the population in China in 2025 decreased by 3.39 million people. At the same time, the number of births amounted to 7.92 million people, and deaths - 11.31 million people. Thus, the natural population growth has a negative indicator — 2.41 per thousand residents.