China is launching an array of financial incentives—including wedding subsidies, child-rearing benefits and home-purchase grants—in an escalating attempt to reverse the country’s steep population decline, according to Times UK. The dramatic policy shift marks a full reversal from the decades-long one-child policy that ended in 2015 and is now blamed for pushing the nation into a demographic crisis.
Zhejiang province, once governed by President Xi Jinping, is among the latest regions to begin subsidizing marriage in hopes of pushing young couples not only toward the registry office but eventually toward parenthood. Cities including Ningbo and Hangzhou are offering wedding vouchers worth up to 1,000 yuan (about £100), which couples can use for banquets, photography or travel. Ningbo officials said the funds would be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.
Other parts of China have gone even further, earning the nickname “baby cities” for the size of their incentives. Tianmen in Hubei province—previously little-known—has been praised nationally for increasing local births by 17 percent over the past year. Families with three children can now receive as much as 220,000 yuan (£23,000) in combined subsidies and housing benefits.
The shift comes as China grapples with one of the world’s steepest population declines. For 35 years, the Communist Party enforced the one-child policy, a system implemented with strict fines and widespread forced abortions. Party leaders once boasted the policy prevented 400 million births, but it has left the country with a shrinking population, a rapidly aging society, and a severe gender imbalance of about 40 million more men than women.
As Times UK notes, President Xi is now urging young women to start having children again—but with limited success. Surveys show that only a minority of female university students want children, while nearly 40 percent say they do not want them at all. Many cite the financial burden, workplace pressures, and the expectations placed on China’s “only children” generation to pursue stable careers and support aging parents.
Beijing introduced a national child benefit this year—3,600 yuan (£380) annually for each child under age three—but much of the responsibility for raising birth rates has been pushed down to local governments. This decentralization has produced inconsistent and sometimes intrusive measures. Women across China have complained online about unsolicited calls from local officials asking personal questions about pregnancy plans or menstrual cycles.
More sophisticated regions are focusing instead on encouraging marriage. Tianmen offers a 120,000-yuan (£12,800) housing subsidy, expanded maternity benefits, and a 60,000-yuan (£6,400) marriage bonus for couples registering in the city. The central government has also removed rules requiring couples to marry in their officially registered hometowns, a major obstacle for China’s vast migrant workforce.
Despite these initiatives, the number of marriages continues to fall—dropping to 6.1 million in 2024 from 7.7 million the year before, and down from more than 13 million barely a decade ago. Xi, who remains skeptical of large-scale welfare spending, is expected to monitor the subsidies closely amid concerns over rising costs.
Whether cash alone can reverse entrenched social attitudes toward marriage and childbirth remains uncertain. But as Times UK reports, Beijing now appears willing to test the limits of incentive-driven social engineering to confront the demographic crisis it once helped create.
