China census: millions of ‘bare branch’ men locked out of marriage face cost of one-child policy

Bureau of statistics downplays scale of concern about gender imbalance in China after declaring 34.9 million more males than females in 2020

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China's population on the mainland reached 1,411,78 billion, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. There were 34.9 million more males than females in 2020, further compounding fears about the millions of men who want to marry but may never be able to. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 9:27pm, 17 May 2021Updated: 4:05pm, 24 May 2021

China faces a growing problem of far more young men than women, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Last week, China released the results of its seventh national population census conducted at the end of last year. There were 34.9 million more males than females in 2020, prompting concerns that not all these males would be able to find a marriage partner. Unmarried men and those unlikely to find a wife are known in China as “bare branches”.

The shortage of women shown in the census stirred worries that men in China would face greater pressure in marriage.

On Monday, the NBS downplayed such assumptions, saying that there were 17.52 million more men aged between 20 and 40 than women in 2020. For this age group, the gender ratio was 108.9 males for 100 females.

“There are 30 million more men in the entire population but they belong to different age groups,” NBS spokesman Fu Linghui said.

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