China says Covid contributed to decline in country’s marriage and birth rates

China’s ‘zero-Covid’ policy has been considered a potential reason behind the decline

The Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to the decline in China’s marriage and birth rates, which have already plummeted due to the high cost of child-rearing, the country’s national health commission said.

The commission in its report released earlier this month pointed out that China's population will begin to shrink by 2025 with an ageing society and fewer children.

Several women are delaying their plans to get married and birth children amid rapid economic and social developments that have led to “profound changes”, it said.

The commission attributed relocation to urban areas, spending more time on education and high-pressure working environments as some of the reasons for the younger population not having a higher birth rate.

“The coronavirus has also had a clear impact on the marriage and childbirth arrangements of some people,” the commission said.

Critics have suggested that China’s ruthless “zero-Covid” policy, which was aimed at stamping out the virus at outbreak, led to strict controls on people’s lives, forcing them to contemplate not having children.

China’s birth rate fell by under 30 per cent between 2019 and 2021, the largest decline in nearly 60 years since the great famine of 1959.

The Asian giant had a fertility rate of 1.16 in 2021, one of the lowest rates in the world and below the 2.1 rate, which is touted to be necessary for a stable population. In 2021, China witnessed the birth of just 10.6 million babies.

The birth rate in China is expected to fall to a record low this year, with forecasts calling for a drop below 10 million.

“The growth rate of the total population has slowed down significantly, and it will enter a stage of negative growth in the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ period,” the national health commission had said, referring to the period between 2021 and 2025.

To fix its crippling demography crisis, the Chinese government withdrew its one-child policy after 35 years in 2015. China changed its law last year to allow women to have three children, in an effort to reverse a rapid shrinkage in natural population growth.