China Simplifies Marriage Rules To Tackle Declining Birth Rates.
China has introduced new measures to streamline marriage registration, aiming to bolster its dwindling population amid a persistent demographic crisis, according to state-owned newspaper China Daily.
The reforms, effective from 10 May 2025, eliminate the need for household registration books and allow couples to register their marriages in locations beyond their permanent residences. This is a significant shift in a country where, as of 2020, over 490 million people lived away from their registered hometowns, per national census data. The process, now reduced to approximately 10 minutes, involves verifying ID cards, taking photos, and completing simplified forms.
The changes come as China grapples with a shrinking population, which declined for the third consecutive year in 2024. Marriage registrations also fell sharply, dropping from 7.68 million in 2023 to fewer than 6.1 million last year, according to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. In the first quarter of 2025, only 1.81 million couples registered, an 8% decrease from the same period in 2024.
Bian Zhihui, a registrar at a new Beijing office, told China Daily: “Previously, couples had to return to their household registration locations with hukou booklets. Now, they can simply present their ID cards at any marriage registration office nationwide.”
The policy follows a proposal by national political adviser Chen Songxi in February to lower the legal marriage age from 22 for men and 20 for women to 18, aiming to enhance fertility rates. Xiujian Peng, a senior research fellow at Victoria University’s Centre of Policy Studies, cautioned that without broader reforms, such measures may yield limited results. He pointed to France and Denmark, where comprehensive policies lifted fertility rates from 1.64 to 1.8–1.9 and 1.38 to 1.7–1.8, respectively, over recent decades.
Beijing’s urgency reflects the severity of China’s demographic challenges. A declining birth rate and ageing population threaten economic growth and social stability, prompting the government to reverse decades of restrictive population controls.
The National People’s Congress is set to consider further reforms, including lowering the legal marriage age and scrapping all childbirth limits. If implemented, these changes could signal a bold departure from China’s historical population policies, aiming to address long-term demographic pressures.