High Unmarried Rate Among Young People recorded in China

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As China’s population ages and its workforce shrinks, the country is facing some big demographic challenges. Among them: encouraging couples to have more children and encouraging young people to get married.

According to data released last week, more than half of Chinese between the ages of 25 and 29 remained unmarried in 2023. That number is in line with marriage rates for the same age group in many developed countries, but a sharp drop compared with figures from just a decade ago for China.

For many young Chinese, there are a growing number of reasons not to tie the knot.

"Marriage, childbirth, and loans for houses and cars are all liabilities, which are overdrafts from the future," said 32-year-old Zhang Yu when asked why he's not married. “When the economic downturn is obvious, if there is no source of income, we can only reduce expenditures.”

Zhang lives in northeast China and works for an infrastructure company that imposed salary cuts in 2023. He says salaries dropped by about 30%.

"I am also secretly glad I did not marry and have children. Otherwise, I would have been in big trouble," said Zhang, who asked to use a pseudonym in order to speak candidly.

China's sluggish economy and high youth unemployment rate in 2023 added to the worries that young Chinese are facing. Analysts are not optimistic about China's economic outlook in 2024.

Jacey Zhang is a single 27-year-old from Beijing who currently lives with her parents. Mocking herself and her plight, she calls herself a "frustrated loser in society."

"Without a job, you can't find a spouse," she told VOA. However, she said that given her current situation, it is easier to be single than to get married.

"One person has enough to eat, and the whole family is not hungry," she said.

She told reporters that even though her parents can afford her living at home, her family is not very well off financially, and getting married would cost more money.

Fang Xu, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley, sees a connection between low marriage rates and record high youth unemployment.

She believes that the popular trend of "lying flat," or rejecting intense competition or social expectations, has not only affected young people's careers but also plans for marriage.