"Late marriage and fewer births" is not just a popular phenomenon among young men and women in urban China. The latest Internet survey shows that the proportion of unmarried men over the age of 30 in rural areas is much higher than that of young women of the same age. What is the reason behind it?
The results of the "2023 Homecoming Experience" questionnaire survey conducted by China Xinhuanet, Weibo and a number of organizations have been announced a few days ago.
According to the data released by this questionnaire survey, Fenghuang.com Finance and Economics Weibo pointed out that the proportion of rural youths who have no desire to have children is as high as 27.72%, and the proportions of those who have one child, second child, third child or more are 38.04%, 32.94% and 1.75%. A Weibo netizen commented on this phenomenon, "It's not that many people in rural areas don't want to have children, but they're not married." Some people also said, "It's not that I don't want to have a baby, it's that I can't find a wife."
The survey also shows that 65% of the respondents think that more than 10% of the young men over the age of 30 in their hometown are unmarried, and 50% of the questionnaires think that more than 10% of the young women over the age of 30 in their hometown are unmarried.
Mr. Chen, a 26-year-old from rural Henan, said that these data are generally consistent with what he observed in his hometown. He believes that the reason why the proportion of unmarried young men in rural areas is higher than that of young women of the same age is related to the expensive bride price and the imbalance between men and women in rural areas.
Features of bride price in rural marriage
He said: "Based on the environment around me, it is a rural wedding now. The bride price for the woman requires you to buy at least a house in the county town, or even go to the city to buy a car, and the bride price, and the bride price is very expensive. Yes, 200,000 to 300,000 is a common figure, and it may be higher than this."
He also said that despite family planning in his hometown, many people in the previous generation still had more than one son. This leads to the fact that the younger the son in a family, the more difficult it is to get married: "It is even more difficult for the youngest to get married, because the elder brother who married before has squeezed out little money left in the family. It's hard because the bride price is very expensive."
Difficulties in Marriage for Male Rural Youth
It is worth noting that the data released by this questionnaire survey show that 21% of the questionnaires think that more than 30% of the young men over the age of 30 in their hometown are unmarried, while 14% think that more than 30% of the young women of the same age are unmarried .
Ms. Chen, 31, is from rural Guangxi. She said that although the wedding gift in her hometown is not high, generally only about 50,000 yuan, the proportion of unmarried young men is still much higher than that of unmarried young women. In her village, there are many single men over 30 years old. Most of these people He has only a junior high school education and earns a living by working part-time.
For safety reasons, she accepted an interview with this station in text form, saying: "Most unmarried people have houses in rural areas, but they don't have houses in county towns. Generally, blind date partners are willing to get married only if they have houses in county towns."
She also told reporters that in the mate selection criteria in the local countryside, there are also situations where women are unwilling to marry in the countryside and hope to live in the city. Therefore, this makes it difficult for young men who do not have real estate in the county to find a marriage partner.
A total of nearly 105,000 valid questionnaires were collected in this survey.