- China is facing a population crisis in part because more women are choosing to focus on their careers and personal goals rather than starting families.
- The Chinese government scrapped its one-child policy in 2016 and lifted birth restrictions in 2021 — but married couples are still having fewer children.
- China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the population fell to 1.412 billion last year from 1.413 billion in 2021.
China’s population has fallen from 1.413 billion in 2021 to 1.412 billion last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
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China is facing a population crisis in part because more women are choosing to focus on their careers and personal goals rather than starting families.
China, already struggling with an aging population and poised to be overtaken by India as the world’s most populous country, continues to struggle to boost its birth rate.
The Chinese government abolished its one-child policy in 2016 and lifted birth restrictions in 2021. However, married couples are having fewer children — or choosing not to have any at all, said Mu Zheng, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore.
“Covid continues to have many negative impacts and has created a general sense of uncertainty about the future,” Mu told CNBC. “There’s a sense of helplessness that keeps many women from wanting children.”
The rising cost of living is also distracting more people from wanting to expand their families, she added.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that the population fell from 1.413 billion in 2021 to 1.412 billion last year. The natural growth rate was negative for the first time since 1960, according to wind data.
China has a larger number of mothers in the workforce compared to Western countries, Andy Xie, an independent economist, told CNBC.
“There is a desire to have a career in China and staying at home mother is never a goal. It doesn’t even appear on the radar for most women,” Xie said.
As more women gain higher qualifications and rise in the workforce, Xie says they expect their husbands to earn more than they do.
In 2020, female undergraduates accounted for nearly 42% of PhD enrollments, and a significantly higher number of women enrolled for a master’s degree than men, data from Statista showed.
“Men face an enormous burden as women would demand financial security from them,” and in return would also not want to get married, according to Xie, who said that “people used to be criticized for being single, but there is no social one Stigma against it no longer.”
A mother and her baby play on a slide at Wukesong shopping district in Beijing, China, May 11, 2021.
Noël Celis | AFP | Getty Images
Awen, a 31-year-old freelance designer from Shenzhen, who would only use her first name, says she’s happy to be single at the moment. All of the women who shared their personal experiences for this story felt comfortable using only their first names.
“Saving money and focusing on my career are my priorities now. I already feel so exhausted after work, I can’t imagine how parents with children feel.”
She said most husbands in China often do not play a central role in raising a child, and instead the burden rests entirely with the mothers.
“A lot of women don’t want to get married because the housework and babysitting responsibilities fall on them,” Awen said. “So if women feel like they have to do chores, make money, and do it all on their own, why not just be on their own?”
But that doesn’t mean her parents are convinced.
“My parents want our bloodline to stay alive, which means having lots of children and grandchildren,” Awen said.
Trip.com is a Chinese company that prides itself on encouraging more women to have children.
In an organization where more than half of its 30,000 employees are women, the online travel agency has developed its own solution to encourage women in the company to have more children.
“We only give women seven to eight years to build a career, build a family and have children,” CEO Jane Sun told CNBC last month, adding that the timeline is “very tight.”
Many young workers are already 28 by the time they graduate, and pregnancy after 35 carries higher risks, she stressed.
Trip.com is offering grants ranging from $15,000 to $300,000 to help Chinese national employees offset the high cost of freezing eggs, she said.
When the initiative began in 2018, more than 50 employees contacted the company’s welfare team to find out if they were eligible, she added.
“We’re among the first, maybe the only, Chinese companies to offer this option,” Sun said. “You always have to offer the option and whether people take it or not is entirely up to them.”
Pregnant employees are offered free taxi rides to and from work and receive cash benefits when their child is born and starts school, she added.
But there is a caveat. According to Chinese regulations, women in China who want to freeze their eggs must be married.
However, some women in China want children but may not be ready to marry just yet, said Mu, the NUH’s assistant professor.
“Women are more economically independent now … so marriage isn’t such an attractive option for a lot of them,” she said.
According to CEIC data, 7.64 million couples married in 2021, down from 8.14 million in 2020.
I am very happy with my child, but sometimes I regret becoming a mother.
shannon
a single mother
In addition, women who divorce after having children face social stigma and struggle to balance their careers while raising a child alone.
“I don’t find it shameful to be a single mom, but I’ve kept it a secret from my peers because I don’t want them to look at me differently,” said Shannon, a 36-year-old mother from Shenzhen.
Shannon told CNBC her father said, “It’s better to get divorced than never get married at all.”
A nurse performs a health check on a newborn baby.
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Though she’s happier after the divorce, life as a single mom comes with challenges she never anticipated, she told CNBC, stressing that she struggles with not having enough time and freedom to do so , what she wants.
“I’m very happy with my child, but sometimes I regret becoming a mother,” Shannon said. “I will never want to have another child and I don’t want to get married again.”
China’s southwestern province of Sichuan announced earlier this year that unmarried residents can enjoy the same benefits as married couples, a move it hopes will boost the country’s fertility rate, Portal reported.
Such measures could potentially help solve low fertility in China as they “decouple the links between marriage and fertility,” Mu said.
High property prices in China continue to hamper many couples looking to settle down, economist Xie said.
Owning property in China is a “really powerful symbol,” and people often want to buy a home before tying the knot.
“However, the cost of housing is a big concern for anyone who wants to get married,” Xie said.
“It has to fall by at least 50% to make marriage more desirable,” says the economist.
“There are no magic bullets here,” he added. “The availability and price of housing depends on the marriage and the number of children” that couples have.
— CNBC’s Daisy Cherry and Ulrica Lin contributed to this report.