The number of new marriages recorded in China fell to a record low last year, despite sweeping government efforts to encourage young people to tie the knot and have babies to halt demographic decline in the world’s second-largest economy.

After seven years of decline, China's birth rate ticked slightly upward last year, a shift analysts have attributed to the end of strict COVID lockdowns the year before and 2024 being a Year of the Dragon—an auspicious sign in the lunar zodiac.

Marriages in China plunged by a fifth to the lowest level on record last year, a setback to efforts by the government to reverse a demographic crisis threatening the world’s second-biggest economy.

Numbers of marriages in China dropped dramatically in 2024. The continuing decline in marriages likely signals further declines in birth rates, intensifying China's demographic headwinds.