One in five marriages end in divorce in China

BEIJING - One in every five marriages in China ends in divorce, with the rate “likely to soar” in coming years, an official report said.

The report released by China’s ministry of civil affairs said 24.2 million people in the country tied the knot in 2009 and there were over 2.4 million registered divorces.

The divorce rate - the number of divorces per 1,000 people - was about 1.85 on the Chinese mainland in 2009, compared with 1.71 per 1,000 in 2008.

“In truth, the divorce rate has kept increasing over the past decades as the country has witnessed its economic growth. It is almost a side effect,” Tang Jun, a social development researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying by the Global Times.

According to official statistics, the figure was 0.4 per 1,000 in 1985, he said.

Tang said the statistics point more towards the present generation, born in the 1980s, which is the first one under the country’s only-child family planning policy.

“They are better educated than their parents, are more independent economically and have developed a stronger sense of self, which tends to wreck marriages more easily,” he said.

Citing a regional survey, he said extra-marital affairs have become a rising cause of divorce in China, particularly in large cities, while rural women had better tolerance of extra-marital affairs compared to their city counterparts.

A rising divorce rate, however, does not mean that China has become less enthusiastic about marriage, he said.

The report also states that more than 24 million people tied the knot in 2009.

“Most of them had a previously failed marriage, but it shows that the Chinese are becoming more open about remarriage,” Tang said.