An eastern Chinese county is offering a 1,000 yuan ($137) ‘cash reward’ to couples if a bride is aged 25 or younger, the latest step to prompt young people to get married amid a growing crisis over a reducing birth rate.
The following announcement was publicized through Changshan County’s official WeChat account last week which said the cash reward was to encourage “age-appropriate marriage and childbirth” for first marriages. It also contained a sequence of childcare, fertility, and education allowances for couples who have kids.
Worried about China’s first population decline in six decades and its rapidly aging population, management is urgently attempting a series of steps to raise the birth rate including financial incentives and enhanced childcare facilities.
China’s permitted age limitation for marriage is 22 for men and 20 for women, but the number of couples getting married has been dropping. That has pushed down childbirth rates due to official guidelines that make it more difficult for unmarried women to have kids.
According to government data released in June, marriage rates struck a record low in 2022 at 6.8 million, the lowest since 1986. There were 800,000 fewer marriages last year than in 2021.
State media reported that the Chinese fertility rate which is already one of the world’s lowest is estimated to have declined to a record low of 1.09 in 2022.
