China is rolling out bold financial incentives to encourage young couples to marry and have children, as the nation faces one of its sharpest population declines.
Cities and provinces are offering everything from wedding vouchers to generous child-rearing subsidies. In Zhejiang province, cities like Ningbo and Hangzhou now provide wedding bonuses of up to 1,000 yuan (£100) for banquets, travel, or photography, distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Some regions have gone further. Tianmen city in Hubei province, nicknamed a “baby city,” saw a 17% rise in births last year. Families with three children can receive up to 220,000 yuan (£23,000) in housing and subsidy support, making it one of the most generous packages in China.
The root of China’s demographic crisis traces back to the one-child policy, enforced for 35 years. While it successfully prevented millions of births, it also caused a rapidly aging population, a shrinking workforce, and a gender imbalance of roughly 40 million more men than women. Even after the policy ended in 2015, birth rates have continued to decline.
Surveys reveal that many young Chinese women are reluctant to have children, citing high costs, workplace discrimination, economic instability, and the pressure of caring for aging parents.
To tackle the falling birth rate, Beijing introduced a national child benefit of 3,600 yuan (£380) annually for children under three. Local governments have also implemented incentives, sometimes sparking criticism for intrusive measures, such as contacting women about their menstrual cycles or pregnancy plans.
Tianmen, for example, offers a 120,000-yuan (£12,800) housing subsidy, expanded maternity benefits, and a 60,000-yuan (£6,400) marriage bonus for couples registering locally. Rules requiring couples to marry in their hometowns have also been lifted to ease the process for migrant workers.
Despite these efforts, marriage numbers are still dropping. In 2024, marriages fell to 6.1 million, down from 7.7 million the previous year and more than 13 million a decade ago. President Xi Jinping is monitoring the programs closely, balancing incentives with the cost of welfare spending.
China’s experiment with incentive-driven family policies reflects its urgent attempt to reverse demographic decline, but whether money alone can change social attitudes remains uncertain.
#ChinaPopulationCrisis #MarriageIncentives #BirthRateBoost #DemographicCrisis #FamilySubsidies #TianmenBabyCity #PopulationDecline
