Overview
- Official data show 1.61 million marriages in the third quarter of 2025, up 22.5% from a year earlier, interrupting a long decline.
- Following the May policy allowing couples to register outside their residence, local bureaus set up marriage counters at scenic sites, festivals, subway stations, malls and parks.
- Notable sites include Xinjiang’s Sayram Lake, Nanjing’s Confucius Temple, a high-altitude office on Chengdu’s Xiling Snow Mountain, Hefei’s Xingfuba station and a Shanghai nightclub partnered with the Huangpu District Civil Affairs Bureau.
- Couples interviewed said the new rule improves convenience but decisions to marry still center on financial security and life priorities rather than spur-of-the-moment travel.
- Demographer Yi Fuxian expects the lift to be short-lived as the population of women aged 20–34 trends toward 58 million by 2050, following a record 20.5% drop in marriages to 6.1 million in 2024.