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Society

Marriage phobia: More Chinese women opt for single life

Unrelenting decline in weddings gives Xi Jinping administration headache

The owner of a wedding dress store puts a wedding dress on a mannequin during the coronavirus outbreak in Suzhou, Jiangsu province.    © Reuters

BEIJING -- Young people in China are steering clear of marriage and the number of weddings has dramatically declined in recent years, posing serious demographic and planning challenges for President Xi Jinping's administration.

There were 7.63 million marriages in China in 2021, down 6.3% year on year and fully 40% less than a decade earlier -- in fact the lowest figure since records began in 1986.

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