China’s birth rate is plunging as young adults cite financial strain, career pressure, and the high cost of childrearing.
China is facing a deepening demographic crisis, with birth rates in several populous provinces plunging over 50 percent in 2024 from their peaks in 2016 or 2017. This sharp decline has already triggered a significant drop in preschool enrollment and the closure of tens of thousands of preschools in recent years.
A recent study by data firm MyCOS reveals that even traditionally high-fertility regions have been hit hard: Shandong Province, once China’s most fertile, saw a 63 percent decline in births, while Hunan reported a 60 percent drop. Similar trends have been observed in Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi—all among China’s 15 most populous provinces.
Jin Yan, a 1990s-born resident of Jinan, Shandong Province, told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times that half of her classmates are single, unable to afford marriage—let alone children.
Even those who do marry rarely consider having kids, she said.
“Among my friends, everyone complains about financial pressure. Those who have kids say the costs are overwhelming. Many people are simply too afraid to have children,” she said.
Jin and her husband are both currently unemployed and struggling to repay the mortgage on a home they bought at the time of their marriage.
Jin spoke on the condition of using a pseudonym, for fear of consequences from the ruling communist regime.
Wang Li (also a pseudonym), a woman born in the 1980s, remains unmarried and unemployed. She told the Chinese-language edition of The Epoch Times that social attitudes are shifting, largely due to the pressures of daily life.
“If I can’t provide a good environment for a child, it’s better not to have one at all,” she said. “I don’t want them to suffer like me.”
She noted that in the past, choosing not to marry or have children was frowned upon but today, it is increasingly becoming the norm.
“Most of the post-1990s generation I know don’t date or plan to get married. Their view is: Why bother with marriage? Why have children? Earning for yourself and living alone is just as valid.”
By Olivia Li
