China offers cash incentive for couples if bride is 25 or younger

Chinese officials are offering a cash reward for couples if the bride will marry before she turns 25.

According to a report by NBC News, the officials recently announced on WeChat that brides aged 25 years old or younger as well as their partners will be given a reward amounting to 1,000 yuan (around P7,784) and other subsidies that would provide assistance in terms of childcare, education, and fertility—in hopes of promoting earlier marriages in Changshan County.

The offer is only for pairs who will tie the knot for the first time and looking to have “age-appropriate marriage and childbearing.”

“At least one of the male and female is registered in Changshan County,” the policy stated, adding that “both the man and the woman are the objects of first marriage.”

NBC News reported that officials have been looking into different measures "to increase the birthrate in the face of a looming demographic crisis in China, where the population declined last year for the first time in six decades." 

In the 1970s, China’s government imposed a “one-child policy” to fight the rapid growth of their population. It was abolished in 2016, and couples can now have up to three children.

Citing data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, local media outlet Yicai reported in June that marriages in China in 2022 were the lowest since 1986.