China’s alarming sex imbalance

By 2027 one in six young Chinese men won’t be able to find a partner

“Of course I want to get married,” says Fu, a lorry driver in Yiyang, a far-flung county in Jiangxi province. Once a migrant worker, the 36-year-old returned to the village to live with his ageing parents. They are anxious for him to tie the knot. “But there are few women,” he sighs. The eligible girls around him are all spoken for; others have left to work in cities.

This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “Bare branches”

From the February 22nd 2025 edition

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