Chinese officials offer young brides £108 'reward' for marriage

Many Chinese women choose not to marry or have children, which creates a number of political incentives. Credit: CHINA DAILY VIA REUTERS

Eastern China is offering would-be brides a 1,000 yuan (£108) cash reward if they marry at age 25 or younger, in the latest move to spur declining birth rates in the country.

Changshan County said the move was to promote «age-appropriate marriage and childbearing» in first marriages.

The notice was announced on the county's official WeChat account last week. It also included a range of subsidies for childcare, fertility, and education for couples who already have children.

This caused a heated discussion on the Internet, critics questioned it. the effectiveness of the policy due to the meager amount offered.

«Those who want to get married will do it without any reward, but those who don't want to get married just for the reward of 1,000 yuan»— wrote one user on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.< /p> China's birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, is estimated to have fallen to a record low of 1.09 in 2022. Photo: PONDSAKSIT/ISTOCKPHOTO

China is increasingly feeling the effects of a demographic crisis after three decades of a tough one-child policy that operated from 1980 to 2015.

The limit has since been raised to three children, but earlier this month local media reported that the country's birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, is estimated to fall to a record low of 1.09 in 2022. Marriages also hit an all-time low of 6.8 million in 2022, the lowest since 1986, according to government data released in June. There were 800,000 fewer marriages last year than in 2021.

In an attempt to stem this decline, more than a dozen local governments across China have introduced stimulus to boost the birth rate in recent years.

Marriage issue

Most of the steps have been aimed at encouraging couples to have second and third children.

But experts have urged officials to also introduce policies specifically targeting couples having a first child.

In China, the legal age of marriage for men is 22. and 20 for women, but the number of couples getting married is declining.

Many women choose not to marry or have children because of the high cost of bearing a child, career advancement, gender discrimination, and inconvenient government policies concerning single women's childbearing.

China does not allow unmarried women to freeze eggs, although discussions have been raised at official meetings in recent years about lifting the restriction.

>Low consumer confidence and growing concern about The state of China's economy is also a key factor cited by young people as reasons for not wanting to marry and have children.