While China has been witnessing marriage delays over the past decade, there are also an increasing number of couples ending their marriages. Recent statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs reveal that China’s divorce rate has quadrupled since 2002, with Beijing topping the national divorce rate at 39 percent.

A report by state-run news outlet Xinhua cited a statistic that 5.58 million couples tied the knot in 2017, while 1.85 million couples registered to get divorced in that same year.

This report delved into the root that drives this increase, with the advancement of society and the consequent emancipation of personality being the dominant reason. Other catalysts includes the growing use of social media such as Weibo and WeChat which leads to less communication between couples. How many times have you been to a restaurant and seen a couple on their phones not talking to each other for their entire meal?

A survey by Tsinghua University listed the top 10 factors that influenced marital happiness, in descending order of importance, starting with love between spouses, willingness and ability to communicate, loyalty, children, income, sexual life, relations between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, relationship with in-laws in general, housing conditions, and housework allocation.

Less communication between couples is one of the underlying reasons lead to increasing divorce rate.

And when the honeymoon stage is over, the marital happiness seems to fade. The survey found that people who have been married for less than three years were the happiest demographic while those who have been married from seven to 10 years were enjoying their marriages the least.

Recent reports by the dating website Baihe.com found that one third of Chinese singles were marriage-phobic. With divorce rates continually raising it’s no wonder young men and women are putting off tying the knot.

Shanghai closely follows Beijing at 38 percent and Shenzhen is third with 36 percent, an obvious sign that shows divorce rates are significantly higher in metropolis areas.

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