Fewer people are getting married and more are getting divorced here in the capital of Henan province, according to official figures.
The Zhengzhou civil affairs bureau yesterday published its social indicator statistics for last year, which point to a decline in marital stability.
Li Zumin, an official at the bureau, said the divorce rate in the city was 20 percent, higher than the provincial average, while for the first time since 2000, the number of marriages also fell.
A total of 26,838 couples tied the knot last year, 5,000 fewer than in 2006, while 7,254 filed for divorce, 600 more than in the year before.
The ratio was highest in the city's Erqi district, were there were 1,666 divorces compared with 4,866 marriages.
One-third of all divorces in the city involved couples born in the 1980s.
Chen Xianglan, a marriage registration office chief in the Jinshui district, told Zhengzhou Daily: "Every day, of the 60-or-so couples that come in to get a divorce, 20-or-so are from the 80s generation".
Most couples of that age have not yet had a child, and have an "easy come, easy go" attitude, Chen said.
Zhou Quande, a professor at the Henan Academy of Social Sciences, said children of the 80s, many of whom were born soon after the introduction of the country's family-planning, or "one-child", policy, have unique attitudes to life, including their choices of potential partners.
"Some have been spoiled, indulged by as many as six adults, including parents and grandparents, and therefore have low tolerance for their partners," he said.
"The passion can soon fade," he said.
The bureau's figures also showed that more than 3,000 couples last year applied for new copies of their marriage certificates.
These have to be produced when applying for overseas travel, buying a property or registering a birth.
Source: China Daily
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article