China County Gives Cash Reward If Bride Is 25 Years Old or Under

• A county in China is offering couples a cash reward of $137 if the bride is under 25.
• It said the move is to promote “age-appropriate marriage and childbearing.”
• The county is also handing out childcare subsidies and benefits, to encourage people to have babies.

China’s so desperate to have more babies that it’ll do anything to boost marriages and fertility.

Recently, a county in eastern China started offering couples 1,000 Chinese yuan, or $137, in cash if the bride is 25 years old or younger, according to a post on its official WeChat account last Thursday. The minimum legal age for marriage is 22 for men and 20 for women.

Changshan county in Zhejiang province said the reward is to promote “age-appropriate marriage and childbearing” for those who are marrying for the first time, per Insider’s translation of the notice.

And one of the parties must have their household registration, or hukou, in the Changshan county, to qualify for the reward.

Changshan county is also granting benefits to couples who have children.

They include subsidies of 5,000 yuan and 10,000 yuan each year for second and third children born in the county up until the age of three and free annual gynecological examinations for women with three kids. They are even offering free public transport in the county for families with two or more kids under the age of 16.

The push for marriage and babies comes after China saw a record low of 6.83 million marriages registered in 2022. The country’s population has even started shrinking for the first time in six decades.

An aging population will have profound implications for the future of China’s economy, labor force, and healthcare system. 

Changshan is not the only region in China racking its brains to encourage marriages and births.

The government of Hangzhou, a tech hub in east China and home to e-commerce giant Alibaba, is granting new parents about $2,900 as a one-off subsidy for having a third child this year.

China’s not the only country trying to boost flagging birthrates with cash incentives. Singapore, South Korea, and Japan have similar programs.

Changshan’s local government office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.