China's top health body urges marriage, childbirth at 'appropriate ages'

By Farah Master

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's National Health Commission will focus more efforts on advocating marriage and childbirth at "appropriate ages", an official said, as authorities struggle to boost a declining birth rate that is shrinking its population.

Yu Xuejun, deputy head of the National Health Commission (NHC), said the NHC would also call for shared parenting responsibilities to guide young people towards "positive perspectives on marriage, childbirth and family, state backed Global Times reported on Thursday.

This would help to foster a "new culture of marriage and childbearing," Yu added.

By law, Chinese men can only get married after the age of 22 and women after the age of 20.

The move comes as Beijing tries to incentivise more women to have children after China's population fell for a second consecutive year in 2023 and births fell to a record low.

Many women are opting to remain childless due to high childcare costs, an unwillingness to marry or put their careers on hold in a traditional society where they are still seen as the main caregivers and where gender discrimination remains rife.

The number of marriages in the first half of this year fell to its lowest level since 2013, official data showed.

Much of China's demographic downturn is the result of China's one-child policy imposed between 1980 and 2015 as well as expensive education costs that have put many Chinese off having more than one child or any at all.

The NHC's Yu said China's changing demographics of a low birth rate and rapid ageing were a natural outcome of economic and social development, but added the committee was asking for persistent efforts from all "localities to promote sustainable demographic development."

(Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newroom; editing by Miral Fahmy)