China wants to incentivise people to have three kids, but young people don’t even want to get married

China is battling a demographic crisis as the population ages and young people do not want to start families

The high cost of marriage and starting families were common reasons to avoid the tradition

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A new survey found that nearly one third of young people in China have no intention of getting married. Photo: Getty Images

Published: 2:00pm, 9 Oct 2021

Chinese authorities have realised that young people do not want to get married, and have babies that traditionally come with starting a family.

Despite a public push to incentivise young adults to start a family – including an overhaul of family planning policies to allow people to have three children – a new survey suggests the marriage rate will only fall in the coming years.

The survey, organised by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, found that more than one-third of nearly 3,000 respondents “did not want to enter a relationship” and were uncertain if their opinion would ever change.

The Chinese government has tried to incentivise people to have more children in recent years. Photo: Getty Images

Published in Guangming Daily, a national newspaper in China, it cited the high costs of starting a family as the top reasons for their reluctance. The survey interviewed people between 18 and 26 years old who lived in urban areas.

The marriage rate in China is already falling and, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 8.13 million couples registered to be married last year, down by 12 per cent from 2019. It was also the seventh consecutive year of decline, and the number represented a 40 per cent decline from the 2013 peak when 13.47 million couples were married.