(Yicai) Nov. 13 -- The number of marriages registered in China is expected to climb above seven million this year, after falling below that level for the first time last year.

Around 5.7 million couples got hitched in China in the nine months ended Sept. 30, up 245,000 from a year earlier, data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs showed on Nov. 10.

New marriages have plunged for nine consecutive years and fell 10.5 percent to 6.8 million last year, the lowest since 1986, when the country began recording the figures. It peaked at 13.5 million in 2013. 

Marriage registrations increased this year because some couples postponed weddings from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, among other reasons, Dong Yuzheng, a population expert and a guest researcher at Guangdong’s provincial counsellors office, told Yicai. “This delay is just a temporary phenomenon,” Dong said.

Though numbers are up this year, it remains to be seen whether they will continue to grow because of China's smaller population size at a marriageable age and the higher age at which couples first tie the knot.

Those getting married at the age of 20 to 24 accounted for only 15.2 percent of the total last year, down 1.3 percentage point from 2021, 20.3 points from 2012, and 22.4 points from the peak in 2010, ministry data showed.

The average age of first marriage was 28.7 in 2020, up 3.9 years from 2010, according to the 2020 China Census Yearbook.

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev