China simplifies procedures to encourage marriage

China's Ministry of Civil Affairs announced on March 22 that the country will soon introduce inter-provincial marriage registration services nationwide, after amending regulations on marriage registration management, Xinhua News Agency reported.

For a long time, couples in China who wanted to get married had to register their marriage at the place of permanent residence of one of them. This created a burden of costs and travel. With the new regulation, couples can now register their marriage at their place of permanent residence, thereby reducing the pressure on couples who live and work far from home.

According to the most recent census, in 2020 there were about 493 million Chinese people living outside their place of permanent residence registration, an increase of more than 88% compared to 2010.

In 2021, China launched a pilot program for inter-provincial marriage registration, which has been expanded to 21 provincial-level regions. By February, about 492,000 couples had benefited from the regulation. The change was made by digitizing the marriage registration system, integrating information into a common database, allowing civil affairs agencies across China to share data seamlessly. To further simplify procedures, the Ministry of Civil Affairs also plans to upgrade its digital infrastructure to enable online marriage registration and inter-provincial data verification.

The new regulation in China is said to be aimed at encouraging couples to get married and have children. According to AFP, China recorded a 1/5 decrease in the number of marriages in 2024 compared to 2023, while the country's population last year had its third consecutive year of decline.