May 20, with the homonym "I love you", has become an annual day for couples from all over the world to get together to get their certificates. But for many young people struggling in big cities, the 520 yuan red envelope can't cure the 'sequel' of 996's busy work - the difficulty in choosing a mate.
Li Lei (pseudonym), 33, works for an Internet company in Beijing. After 30 years old, compared with the 996 challenge in his work, coping with his parents' forced marriage has become a bigger problem for him: he is not young and Beijing is not easy to be treated. Go home and marry his daughter-in-law.
Liu Lin (not her real name), 29 years old, has encountered the same problem. Even though she works in international trade, her income is several times higher than that of her classmates in Shenyang. In her mother's eyes, it's better to find someone earlier to stabilize.
But is it really that hard to get married?
Beijing News reporter analyzed the sample survey data of unmarried men and women in 31 provinces in China from 2002 to 2017, and found that compared with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the hometown of second and third tier provinces is not much better, the difficulty of marriage is not small, and the probability of finding suitable partners is even lower.
It's hard for Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to get married, but it's not easy for other provinces
Is it really hard for Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to get married?
In 2017, the marriage rates of China's provinces showed that the marriage rates of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong were lower than those of the whole country, so it was really difficult to get married. However, other provinces are not easy either. For Li Lei, for example, the marriage rate in his hometown Gansu is similar to that in Beijing.
This generation of young people increasingly do not want to get married
In fact, the decrease of marriage rate is a common problem in China. After 2013, China's marriage rate has been declining for five consecutive years, with an overall decline of 1.9 & permil;.
This year's young people are getting married later and later, and they don't want to get married.
Li Lei felt that his friends were getting married later and later. He said, "the children of my classmates in my hometown have been able to make soy sauce. Many of them have two children, but it's very common for young people in their early 30s like me in the city. '
The marriage rate has been declining again and again, which is related to factors such as the decline in the total number of marriageable people in recent years.
Li Lei, born after 85, was born in an era of declining birth rate in China. According to the statistical results of birth rate in China Statistical Yearbook published by the National Bureau of statistics, from 1989 to 1993, China's overall birth rate showed a downward trend year by year, with an overall decline of 3.49 & permil;. This has an impact on today's number of marriage registrations and marriage rates.
It is worth noting that the data show that there is no 'positive correlation' between economy and the number of marriages.
Therefore, it's difficult to get married, but we can't blame Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. This is a phenomenon caused by a variety of complex factors.
The proportion of unmarried men and women in all provinces of China is generally unbalanced? Nearly half of the provinces are becoming more and more serious
In addition to the continuous decline in the number of marriageable people, the imbalance in the proportion of unmarried men and women in various provinces also aggravates the difficulty of marriage.
We analyzed the sample survey data of unmarried men and women in 31 provinces from 2002 to 2017, and found that the proportion of unmarried men and women was unbalanced not only in Beijing and Shanghai, but also in other provinces.
Beijing News reporter found that the difference in the proportion of men and women among unmarried people in Beijing and Shanghai is not high in all provinces. From the perspective of the proportion of men and women among unmarried people, the difference in more than 20 provinces is higher than that in Beijing and Shanghai. Therefore, when single people go back to their hometown, the competitive pressure in the love and marriage market will not necessarily be less.
For example, in Zhejiang, there are 65 men in every 100 unmarried people, and the ratio difference between men and women among unmarried people is as high as 30%. In 12 provinces, the difference in the proportion of unmarried men and women is more than 20%, and Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are no longer among them.
This means that if the marriage market in your province is very competitive, you may consider going to the surrounding provinces to find love.
For example, the proportion of men among unmarried people in Tianjin is 20.37% higher than that of women, but if they take the high-speed rail to Beijing for half an hour, the difference in the proportion will be reduced to 9.97%. That is to say, unmarried men in Tianjin will have less competition pressure when they go to Beijing to find a partner.
According to the analysis results, a Beijing News reporter has made a "national marriage friendly map" based on the difference in the proportion of unmarried men and women. In these provinces, perhaps, single people are more likely to find another half.
The structure of unmarried men and women in these provinces is becoming more and more unbalanced
In an ideal state, a balanced ratio of men and women is a healthy social structure, in which case the marriage rate will be higher. However, in the past 15 years, the structural imbalance of unmarried men and women in 14 provinces has become more and more serious.
Zhejiang is the most unbalanced Province in China, and the proportion of unmarried men has increased by 5.88% in the past 15 years. Shaanxi is the most balanced Province in China. At present, the proportion of men in unmarried people is 50.86%. There is a gap of more than 3.5% between other provinces and the 50% balance line. Interestingly, the proportion of unmarried men in Ningxia was 57.39% in 2002. 15 years later, the proportion of unmarried women has exceeded that of men, reaching 53.62%.
Economic factors: fear of marriage or high cost of marriage?
Why has the marriage rate been declining in recent years? In addition to the above demographic reasons, there are also some factors that affect people's decision to get married.
In Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and some provincial capital cities, just holding a wedding may cost a year's income of a marriageable youth.
The cost of holding a wedding is so high, not to mention the cost of buying a wedding room. According to the house price statistics of anjuke official website in 2018, the average house price in Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Xiamen, Guangzhou and Sanya is more than 30000 yuan / m2. And economically underdeveloped provinces, such as Guangxi, Gansu, Jiangxi, Ningxia and so on, have not low requirements for betrothal gifts. Last year, the 688000 sky high price of betrothal gifts in Jiangxi is still fresh in many people's memory.
According to Li Lei, in a third tier city in his hometown of Gansu, although the house price is far lower than that in Beijing, if he decides to go home to get married and settle down, the salary will be greatly reduced compared with that in Beijing, and the marriage pressure will not be too small: the down payment for the house + the decoration cost + the purchase of a car will be at least 400000, and another 150000 betrothal gifts will be given.
Concept change: some young people in this class don't want to get married any more
The concept of marriage of this generation of young people is changing. Marriage is no longer a necessary choice.
In the variety show my daughter, 31 year old actress Jiao Junyan's attitude towards marriage is to let it be, but her simple confusion also asks many people's voice: why do people want to get married?
According to the survey report on contemporary youth group's views on marriage and love released by youth voice of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, about 40% of women and 20% of men tend not to marry, believing that 'single is also very happy' and 'marriage will make people lose their freedom'. Another 11% decided to get married because of external factors: "I don't want to be surprised.".
Onepoll, an online market research organization, investigated the specific reasons why 2000 people didn't want to get married
You don't need to use 'marriage' to prove love
Marriage is an outmoded tradition under the old patriarchal system
It's too expensive to get married
You want to be independent
Too many divorces
Li Lei's mother has always believed that there are too many excellent marriageable boys in Beijing, and Li Lei n's conditions are at most ordinary in Beijing, but when she comes back to her hometown, she can 'kill' most of the competitors in the blind date market, so as to achieve the effect of 'dimension reduction'. For Li Lei, not getting married may be more of his own choice, marriage is not necessarily the ultimate destination of love, nor is it a necessary choice in life.