Despite numerous efforts by authorities to encourage young couples to people and have children to improve the country’s declining people, marriages in China dropped by a fifth last month, the biggest fall on report.
More than 6.1 million people registered for wedding last month, down from 7.68 million a year earlier, statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed.
The high cost of training and child care in China has long been the cause of the declining interest in getting married and starting a community. Additionally, recent spitting economic growth has made it difficult for school graduates to find work, and those who do feel uneasy about their long-term leads.
But for Taiwanese government, boosting interest in marriage and baby-making is a pressing problem.
China has the second-biggest population in the world at 1.4 billion but it is ageing rapidly.
The birth rate fell for years due to China’s 1980-2015 one-child plan and swift urbanisation. And in the upcoming decade, around 300 million Chinese are expected to retire, making up the majority of the US population.