Text: Yu Yi
According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the number of marriage registrations on the mainland in 2021 is 7.636 million pairs. This is after falling below 10 million pairs in 2019 and 9 million pairs in 2020, the number of marriage registrations fell below 8 million pairs again. Media statistics show that this data has reached a new low since 1986.
For the older generation of social groups on the mainland, marriage is the most important thing in life, and even some people enter the palace of marriage when they are just adults. But with the development of society and the progress of the Internet age, people would rather be alone than get married. Some young people's parents have broken their hearts for their children's marriage, helplessly, no matter how to persuade and introduce blind dates at home, the children are indifferent, in such a big environment, the mainland marriage rate has also set a record.
Judging from the number of marriage registrations in the mainland, it reached 13.4693 million pairs in 2013, and since then it has declined year by year, and the number of marriage registrations in 2021 has declined for eight consecutive years. From the perspective of marriage rate, the marriage rate in the mainland in 2013 was 9.9 ‰, and since then it has decreased year by year, and the marriage rate in 2021 has dropped to 5.4 ‰, which is also a decline for 8 consecutive years.
The marriage rate, which has fallen year after year, has led to the birth rate on the mainland falling to 7.52%. According to the published data, the number of newborns in mainland China has decreased year by year from 2016 to 2021, with 18.83 million, 17.65 million, 15.23 million, 14.65 million, 12 million and 10.62 million, respectively. So what is the reason for the "double low" marriage rate and fertility rate? What are modern young people thinking?
There has been a great change in the concept of marriage
With the progress of society, people's concept of starting a family has also changed, in the past, young people will get married and have children when they reach the marriageable age, and now marriage has become less important in people's lives, resulting in not only parents, but also high-level people who urge marriage and children. In the eyes of people in the 80s and 90s, people living in this world had to get married and have children and pass on their generations. Even the parents' generation would think that life without marriage and children is incomplete.
Today's post-90s and even post-00s, from childhood to adulthood, the education they received and the parents' generation are completely different. In the education they received, they gradually realized that life is not only the choice of marriage and children, but since then, their concept of marriage has changed a lot.
With the development of society, modern women's ideological and material independence has made them no longer completely dependent on men, and more and more women are pursuing independence in the workplace and career success than marrying and having children. In fact, boycotting marriage and having children has become a "trend" for young people. According to the data, the total population of China's post-90s is currently 170 million, but only 10 million couples have registered marriages, which also means that most of the post-90s who marry at the right age are still single.
In the 80s and 90s, people chose to get married and have children because they did not have much choice in the direction of life, and in terms of ideology, if they did not marry at the marriageable age, the people around them would regard themselves as "outliers" in this society. And today's young people's concept of marriage has changed a lot, before it was said that the first to start a family and then establish a business, but now the situation has undergone earth-shaking changes, people choose to start a business first and then start a family, so why is it the situation today?
This generation of young people prefers to be alone
At present, the proportion of men and women in society is seriously imbalanced, which is why many men cannot find a marriage partner. In 2021, the mainland's female population increased by 940,000 and men by 460,000, the first decline in China's male population since 1978, although in terms of total numbers, the mainland has 33.62 million more men than the female population.
Generally speaking, getting married means taking on more family responsibilities yourself, and you need to be responsible for your partner and child after the child is born. Many young people prefer to choose to live alone because of trivial matters after marriage. According to statistics, the number of singles in the mainland has reached 260 million, most of which are actively single.
Mainly because the life pressure of young people is too great, in order to be able to support themselves need to work hard to earn money, today's society competition pressure is huge, if you do not work hard, it is easy to be eliminated by society, many aspiring young people will put all their energy into work. Especially now the cost of marriage is too high, gift money, banquets, venues, wedding photos, honeymoons, photographers, hosts, wedding rooms, wedding dresses, etc., everywhere need money, of which the cost of the wedding room is the largest.
At present, the average house price in the mainland has exceeded 10,000 yuan, and a house in an ordinary city will be millions, and the houses in first- and second-tier cities cannot even think of it. Many young people have emptied their savings for this, and they can only pay a down payment, and the huge economic pressure is in front of them, and young people want to get married, but they also have more than enough and are insufficient. And according to previous street surveys, most women believe that it is unrealistic for 30-year-old men to want to get married without 500,000 to 1 million savings. In first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, many people believe that at least 2 million to 3 million deposits are needed to get married.
Savings are also one of the necessary prerequisites for marriage, and if men want to be more competitive in the current market, they need to have enough self-control, stable jobs and powerful families, which invisibly raise the threshold for marriage. Especially at present, more and more young people have embarked on the road of moonlight or even advanced consumption, and it is better not to have negative assets.
Another reason is that China's divorce rate is on the rise, which has now reached nearly 4 million pairs. Domestic violence, infidelity, financial disputes, custody, mother-in-law relationships, postpartum depression, etc., any of these problems can destroy the entire marital relationship. After divorce, not only will both parties lose their funds, but they will also go to court because of the distribution of children or property, which causes young people to choose to postpone marriage or even not to marry.
Many people have begun to think that a loving marriage is what they are after, and if there is no love as a basis, it is okay to be single for a lifetime. The attitude of modern young people is no longer bound by marriage like the older generation, and they yearn for a free life. If they have to face these circumstances of marriage, they will feel that this unrestrained and comfortable life will be put to an end.
epilogue
To this end, many people have proposed that in order to truly alleviate China's low marriage rate and low fertility rate, we should proceed from the actual needs of the people and solve the housing prices, birth costs and living costs that cause these problems, so that everyone can have more confidence in solving personal problems and promoting the overall development of the country. But the marriage rate is low, and the biggest "breakthrough" lies in the ideological concepts of contemporary young people. What do you think about that?