Overview
- Official data show 1.697 million marriage registrations in the first quarter, a 6.24% decline from a year earlier.
- The tally is the weakest first-quarter reading since 2020 despite Q1 often peaking around Lunar New Year.
- Marriage counts are tracked as a leading gauge of next year’s births because out-of-wedlock births remain uncommon in many places.
- China recorded 7.92 million births in 2025, the lowest on record, and the population shrank by 3.39 million for a fourth straight year.
- Authorities have added subsidies, childcare support, and youth-focused city plans, yet divorces only edged down to 622,000 and the slide in marriages has not reversed.