Chinese villages offer cash rewards to matchmakers as anxieties grow over rural ‘bachelor crisis’

Name: China posts record-low birth rate despite government push for babies
Uploaded: 2024-01-27T08:52:03.000Z
Duration: 3 min 23 s
Description: China posts record-low birth rate despite government push for babies

Local governments across China announce incentives of up to US$140 for those who help unmarried men find wives

The country has about 30 million unmarried men, and some policymakers worry the imbalance will affect stability and development in countryside

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High youth unemployment is one of the factors contributing to a low marriage rate among men in rural China, according to University of Wisconsin demographer Yi Fuxian. Photo: Shutterstock

He Huifengin Guangdong

Published: 4:52pm, 27 Jan 2024Updated: 5:47pm, 27 Jan 2024

Local governments in China are offering cash rewards and other incentives to matchmakers, an ancient profession now back in the spotlight amid anxieties over rural unmarried men.

Village governments across the country, from Guangdong province in the south to Shaanxi in the northwest, have announced rewards ranging from 600 to 1,000 yuan (US$84 to US$140) for matchmakers if they introduce women to unmarried men aged 30 and above and the pair eventually marry in the village, Chinese news site The Paper reported on Saturday.

Most of the incentive programmes will start in January or February, according to the report.

From January 1, the village council of Xiangjiazhuang in Shaanxi province will give 1,000 yuan to those who introduce an unmarried man to a woman he eventually marries. The village is home to about 270 households and more than 40 unmarried men between the ages of 25 and 40, according to the report.

According to China’s 2020 census, the country has 722 million men and 690 million women, with the gender imbalance most prominent among those born during the one-child policy from 1980-2015.

In 2021, the gender ratio in rural areas was about 108 men for every 100 women, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

That leaves China with about 30 million unmarried men, a surplus that some policymakers fear could affect social stability and economic development.

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China posts record-low birth rate despite government push for babies