2026-11-06
According to data from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, 4.648 million couples registered for marriage in China in the first three quarters of 2026, a year-on-year decrease of approximately 500,000 pairs; 2.082 million couples registered for divorce, remaining largely flat compared to the same period last year. The divorce-to-marriage ratio reached 44.8%, approaching the high of 45.3% seen in the same period of 2020.
2026-11-05
Data released by China's Ministry of Civil Affairs shows that approximately 4.65 million couples registered for marriage in the first three quarters of 2026, a decrease of about 500,000 compared to the same period last year.
2026-11-04
A Guangdong netizen posted a social security retirement income certificate from Shenzhen, showing a monthly payment of 1,989 yuan after nearly 20 years of contributions, sparking public concern over pension gaps and the proposed extension of the social security contribution period to 20 years.
2026-10-30
On October 30, the official Bilibili account of China News Service reposted a People's Daily video commentary on pensions regarding young people being unable to afford to support the elderly. A large number of netizens refuted this through comments and bullet comments, stating that they can barely support themselves and questioning whether state media is manufacturing or avoiding anxiety about retirement.
2026-10-27
On October 27, a Guangdong netizen posted on Xiaohongshu saying that for nearly four years their social insurance had been paid at the minimum base. HR held a talk with them, proposing to pay social insurance in full starting November, but demanding that they bear the company's share; after calculation, their salary was cut by more than 1,000 yuan.
2026-10-25
According to the China Statistical Yearbook 2026, China's population aged 65 and above reached 224 million in 2025, accounting for 15.9%, exceeding for the first time the share of the 0-to-14 age group at 15.1%; the old-age dependency ratio of 23.1% surpassed the child dependency ratio of 22% for the first time.
2026-10-25
On October 25, Yicai reported that as the number of children declines, kindergartens in many places are being converted into nursing homes, and preschool teachers are changing careers to care for the elderly. In 2025, China's old-age dependency ratio exceeded the child dependency ratio for the first time, with the population aged 65 and above exceeding the 0–14 age group by 10.89 million.
2026-10-25
On October 25, a lawyer interning at a law firm in a new first-tier city posted that her original monthly salary was 3,000 yuan, but after paying social insurance she received only 1,000 yuan; she has to buy business suits out of her own pocket, still wears summer clothes in 10℃ weather, and has to pay 1,000 yuan herself for pre-job training.
2026-10-25
On October 25, a Douyin blogger posted a video of a group of elderly people singing in a park, captioned "Listen! The pension insurance I paid is singing." In the comments section, netizens complained about pension benefits versus the burden of contributions.
2026-10-24
Recently, netizens filmed a group of retired seniors on a trip singing 'Bless the Motherland'. In the comments section, netizens flooded the screen saying that they pay social security to support retired seniors, while their own parents farmed and paid agricultural taxes to support them.
2026-10-23
Netizens have exposed a roster of individuals who have not participated in resident social insurance, and the related collection calls made to family members have sparked public complaints.
2026-10-23
On October 23, Chinese Premier Li Qiang presided over the State Council executive meeting, calling for accelerating the building of a fertility-friendly society, improving policies on marriage, childbirth, child-rearing and education, optimizing family support measures such as fiscal and tax, social security and housing policies, and striving to stabilize the scale of the newborn population.
2026-10-23
On October 23, a netizen posted a "roster of people over 22 who have not enrolled in resident insurance," captioning it that those who haven't paid social insurance have already been found. Netizens in the comments said collection calls would be made to everyone in the family, and that even the unemployed with no money were being pressed to pay.
2026-10-20
On October 20, Gelonghui released data on sex ratios by birth order for 31 provinces (municipalities) based on the 2020 China Census Yearbook: nationally, the sex ratio for first births was 113.17, for second births 106.78, and for third births it rose to 132.93, with Hubei's third-birth sex ratio reaching as high as 177.42, Anhui at 165.95, and Fujian at 164.49.
2026-10-18
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced that it will work with multiple departments, including public security and tax authorities, to cross-check backend data, precisely identify people who should be covered but are not, or whose contributions have been interrupted, and have community workers proactively reach out and encourage them, with the goal of keeping the basic pension insurance participation rate stable at above 95%.
2026-10-18
Recently, netizens in many places across China have reported on social media that they received notices of increased social insurance premiums, requiring them to pay back the difference for January to September. A netizen in Shenzhen said the social insurance payment was nearly 2,000 yuan, lamenting the heavy pressure on life amid economic difficulties.
2026-10-16
A NetEase account revealed that Jingmen Rural Commercial Bank in Hubei, together with the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, has launched a social security loan product aimed specifically at insured persons who lack the ability to pay, with the loan proceeds transferred directly into their social security account.
2026-10-16
On June 19, 2025, the Social Security Bureau of Jingmen City, Hubei Province published a promotional article titled “Paying Social Security Contributions with Loans: A Win-Win for All Three Parties,” urging the public to pay their social security contributions by taking out loans. Recently, as new rules mandating social security contributions have drawn public attention, the article was dug up again by netizens and met with skepticism. It has since been deleted and now returns a 404 status.
2026-10-16
Recently a man posted a video complaining about the push to enroll in social insurance, saying he had repeatedly encountered bosses who failed to pay wages, had already been to arbitration three or four times, and had to recover even 200 yuan in wages through arbitration. Working in self-media with a monthly salary of only 2000 yuan, he was still criticized by his boss for being too expensive, and he asked in return how he is supposed to pay social insurance without money.
2026-10-15
On October 15, a woman in Weihai, Shandong posted a video saying she had lost her job and could not afford social insurance. She then received a "caring call" from her community, followed by another video in which she urgently clarified that no one would starve to death in this time of peace and prosperity. The comment section of the original video was emptied, and netizens joked in the bullet comments that she had been threatened.
2026-10-15
On October 15, a netizen posted a video saying that the social insurance base has gone up and back payments are required, jokingly asking whether the compulsory education spring and autumn holidays could be made up — 6 days a year for 9 years — with the caption "Please give me back my two-day weekends."
2026-10-15
On October 15, a Douyin blogger posted a video saying that they pay social insurance in full every month, but because the contribution base was adjusted, their boss demanded that they make up the difference from January to October, totaling over 1,000 yuan. The money has already been deducted, and they are asking netizens for help on how to get it back.
2026-10-14
Shenzhen's social security pension base has risen again, and back payments and supplementary payments are required for the period from January to December. The difficulty of recovering the shortfall from departed employees is increasing the burden on businesses.
2026-10-14
On October 14, a netizen in Guangdong posted a video pouring out the last bit of rice left in the rice jar, captioned with the question "Should I buy rice first, or pay social insurance first?" Netizens in the comments section hotly debated the pressure of making a living.
2026-10-13
Research by Yi Fuxian, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, suggests that China's actual population may be close to 1.27 billion, with the officially announced figure of 1.4 billion overstated by 130 million.
2026-10-13
China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced that it will use big data to find people and mobilize the uninsured to enroll in social insurance, drawing collective mocking private messages and questioning from netizens inside the Great Firewall.
2026-10-13
On October 13, The Wall Street Journal published a report citing research by Yi Fuxian, a scholar at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, saying that China's actual population may be around 1.27 billion, about 130 million fewer than the officially announced 1.4 billion, based on evidence including vaccine dosages, census data, and discrepancies in school-age population records, and noting that overestimating the population could exacerbate strategic miscalculations between China and the United States.
2026-10-13
After Li Zhong's remarks sparked heated discussion, netizens sent private messages to the Douyin account of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security with comments such as "I'm turning myself in, I haven't paid social insurance, shoot me," "turning themselves in" and storming the tower.
2026-10-13
On October 13, the YuWa Population Think Tank released the World Expected Population Report 2026, stating that China's "expected population" fell from 1.070 billion in 2016 to 264 million in 2025, a decline of 75.3%, already below the 285 million of the United States, and pointing out that current support for childbirth is so insufficient that it is difficult even to keep the indicator from weakening further.
2026-10-13
Fujian Province has raised the pension insurance contribution base and requires insured individuals who previously paid at the old base to make up the difference. A netizen from Zhangzhou posted a payment page showing a monthly shortfall of 29.2 yuan, with payments made at the old minimum tier from January to September requiring a cumulative back payment of 262.8 yuan; a netizen from Fuzhou said the company had already gone bankrupt, leaving the back payments for earlier months unresolved.
2026-10-13
On October 13, a netizen from Zhejiang said on Xiaohongshu that she has no job and cannot afford the monthly flexible-employment medical insurance of about 500 yuan. Having stopped paying for over a year, she received an SMS urging her to complete basic medical insurance enrollment procedures, which she linked to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security’s “data finds people” enrollment campaign.
2026-10-13
On October 13, an unemployed woman in Weihai, Shandong, publicly posted a video saying she has no source of income and can only survive by collecting scrap, that she is unable to afford social insurance fees, and calling on the social security bureau to help her find a job, promising to pay social insurance immediately once employed.
2026-10-13
On October 13, a discussion appeared on Weibo suggesting lowering the minimum social insurance contribution base. Bloggers reported that flexible workers face heavy contribution burdens — in Shanghai, paying pension and medical insurance at the minimum base comes to 2,263.80 yuan per month in total. Netizens sarcastically commented on the income gap between those inside and outside the system.
2026-10-12
A netizen posted a bill showing a social insurance payment of 2785 yuan made to the Shenzhen Tax Bureau through Alipay Huabei on October 12, sparking heated discussion online.
2026-10-12
Gelonghui released detailed data on China's social security and employment expenditure from 2018 to 2025: the total in 2025 was 4.44 trillion yuan, of which pension expenditure for administrative and public institutions was about 1.6 trillion yuan, accounting for 36.1% of the total expenditure.
2026-10-12
On October 12, a netizen in Guangdong who described themselves as a flexible-employment worker posted a video asking the AI assistant Doubao in English whether they would face compulsory enforcement for being unable to pay social insurance. The AI replied that they might be found through big data and persuaded, but would not be subject to compulsory enforcement, sparking heated discussion in the comments.
2026-10-12
On October 12, a netizen posted a social insurance payment bill showing a payment of 2,785.43 yuan in social insurance fees to the Shenzhen Municipal Tax Bureau via Alipay's Huabei, and said it could be paid in installments; the netizen also found that records of paying social insurance via Huabei in Shenzhen, Guangxi, Jingdezhen and other places had existed since 2022.
2026-10-12
On October 12, a netizen who had been unemployed for several months posted on Xiaohongshu asking where one can apply to have social security contributions credited as paid, and lamented that no wonder everyone wants to take the exam for an official establishment position; the comment section teased with remarks such as “credited as received.”
2026-10-11
On October 11, "How much social insurance do you actually have to pay to get a 10,000-yuan pension" ranked first on Weibo's hot search. Previously, a blogger cited Shanghai as an example, claiming that ordinary people would have to pay contributions at a relatively high base for 30 to 40 years before their pension could exceed 10,000 yuan, and said the shortcut was to get a job inside the system. Netizens sarcastically commented on "deemed contributions" — "they have the final say."
2026-10-11
On October 11, a ride-hailing driver and a young job seeker each posted videos saying that, given current market conditions and the plight of unemployment, they cannot afford social insurance contributions because they are unable to earn money or have no company to pay them, sparking heated discussion.
2026-10-11
On the evening of October 11, the topic climbed onto Weibo's social hot search list. Netizens complained about having to pay back the earlier difference, with one netizen from Guangdong saying the company had already covered the entire back-payment difference for its employees, comparing it to a landlord announcing a rent increase in October and demanding the price difference for the previous 9 months.
2026-10-10
Li Zhong, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, said that as of the end of September, China's social security enrollment ranks first in the world, and next step is to use various data to find those who have not yet enrolled and mobilize them to enroll.
2026-10-10
On October 10, Gelonghui published an article estimating from population birth data that from 2026 to 2050 a cumulative total of about 570 million people in China will turn 60, with an average of about 63,000 people entering retirement age each day, and pressure on pension payouts continuing to grow.
2026-10-10
On October 10, Li Zhong, Vice Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, said that some people are still not covered by insurance and that they must be found through various means and urged to enroll, sparking heated discussion online.
2026-10-10
On October 10, a blogger posted a video interpreting social insurance policy, saying "our mom is anxious" and "the iron fist of taxation will be served", sparking heated netizen discussion about the burden of social insurance contributions; one comment said the additional social insurance costs the company demands are borne by employees, with 1700 yuan deducted each month.
2026-10-09
Data from Hong Kong's Census and Statistics Department show that births from mid-2025 to mid-2026 totaled 29,700, falling below the 30,000 mark for the first time and hitting a new low since records began in the 1960s.
2026-10-09
Shih Wing-ching, founder of am730, published an article in a Hong Kong newspaper claiming that the appearance of condoms is the main cause of declining birth rates, and suggesting that the government mandate that a certain proportion of condom products be leaky defective goods, in order to fine-tune the birth rate.
2026-10-08
Three departments in Guangdong issued a notice dated September 17 and published on the tax bureau's official website on October 8, retroactively unifying the lower limit of the pension contribution base for enterprise employees to 5,510 yuan as of January and 5,521 yuan from July onward. Shenzhen's original lower limit of 4,775 yuan was raised by about 15.6%, and employees and employers who had previously contributed at the lower base must pay the difference.
2026-10-08
On October 8, a Xiaohongshu user who pays flexible-employment social insurance in Hefei posted that when paying October pension insurance through Alipay, a bill popped up showing a shortfall of 8.60 yuan per month starting from January; the interface offers no option to decline the back-payment, and without paying it, next month's contribution cannot be made.
2026-10
The Chinese Communist Party has announced that starting in October it will crack down hard, using big data to recover social security contributions from entities and individuals who failed to pay them in accordance with the law, with violators facing fines.
2026-10
The Guangdong government raised the lower limit of the pension insurance contribution base from 4775 to 5521 and required back payments of the difference from January to September, sparking complaints from netizens.
2026-10
Various localities are using big data and door-to-door mobilization at the grassroots level to push for payment of pensions for urban and rural residents and flexible workers; the continuous rise in the social insurance base and amounts is increasing the burden on the public.
2026-10
The Chinese government has issued the "National Tax Administrative Penalty Discretionary Benchmarks (2026 Edition)," which for the first time incorporates social security contributions into the unified national tax administrative penalty discretionary system, effective November 1. Netizens are concerned that rising labor costs for enterprises may lead to the shifting of social security costs onto employees, resulting in wage cuts and exacerbating deflation and employment difficulties.
2026-10
China's births in 2025 totaled only 7.92 million, a decrease of 1.62 million from 9.54 million in 2024, hitting the lowest level in decades.
2026-10
China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security said it will use big data to identify people who have not paid social insurance, prompting netizen concerns that social insurance payments may become compulsory.
2026-09-19
On September 19, population expert Huang Wenzheng published an article refuting National Health Commission Director Lei Haichao's statement that the labor force is sufficient. He pointed out that 8-million annual births cannot sustain long-term scale and warned of a demographic collapse in 20 years without substantial improvements in fertility support. The article was subsequently deleted.
2026-09-03
On September 3, a netizen posted a video pointing out that their employees' monthly salary is 4,000 yuan, but the social security contribution base is far higher than the actual wage, resulting in an extra deduction of over 130 yuan per month from employees. The netizen believes this exacerbates cash flow pressure on low-income earners, with some job seekers even actively requesting to waive social security in exchange for cash. Netizens in the comment section discussed this, pointing out the excessive gap between the minimum wage and the contribution base, and calling for an increase in the minimum wage and protection of working hours.
2026-09-18
Fujian's Department of Human Resources and Social Security, Department of Finance, and Taxation Bureau issued a notice on September 18, setting the upper limit of the pension insurance contribution base at 22893 yuan and the lower limit at 4579 yuan, and requiring back payment of the difference after January 1, 2026, with no late fees if paid in full before the end of December.
2026-09-16
The World Economic Forum released the 2026 Global Gender Gap Report, ranking China 96th overall, with the sex ratio at birth indicator ranking third from the bottom globally.
2026-09-14
On September 14, Lei Haichao, Director of the National Health Commission, stated that in the face of negative population growth, the fundamentals of China's total population remain unchanged. He proposed actively promoting views on marriage and childbearing, resisting negative views on marriage and childbearing, and simultaneously promoting the integration of childcare and preschool education while reducing the costs of giving birth and raising children.
2026-09-14
On September 14, Lei Haichao, director of the National Health Commission, stated at a State Council Information Office press conference that although China's newborn population has declined in recent years, it has remained at the order of magnitude of around 8 million, and there will still be relatively abundant labor resources in the future. This statement was subsequently rebutted by Huang Wenzheng in a published article.
2026-09-14
On September 14, at a press conference, Lei Haichao, director of the National Health Commission, stated that China's total population is 1.405 billion and that it will long maintain its status as a populous country in the world, while acknowledging that the population has declined for 4 consecutive years and that newborns have dropped from the tens of millions to the millions.
2026-09-14
Official data show that primary school enrollment in Guangzhou fell from 272,500 in 2023 to 218,300 in 2025, a decrease of 54,200 over two years, or about 19.9%.
2026-09
As of the end of September, the enrollment scale of China's basic pension, unemployment, and work injury insurance ranks first in the world, and the authorities have proposed mobilizing uninsured people to enroll through measures such as policy optimization and using data to identify people.
2026-09
According to Ministry of Education data disclosed by Yicai, the number of primary school students in China in 2025 fell by more than 4.06 million compared with 2024, ordinary primary schools decreased by 8,000, an average of nearly 22 closing every day; over the past 5 years the total number of ordinary primary schools has fallen by 30,000.
2026-09
According to disclosed statistics, the number of kindergartens closed in China in 2025 rose further, with nearly 59 shut down per day on average, reflecting the impact of the declining birth rate on the preschool education sector.
2026-09
Anhui announced in September that the lower limit of the 2026 social insurance contribution base will be raised from 4,311 yuan to 4,354 yuan, effective from January; those under flexible employment pension insurance must make up a difference of 8.60 yuan per month.
2026-08-14
On August 14, 2026, financial media reported that, hit by the continuing decline in newborns, the number of full-time kindergarten teachers nationwide dropped by nearly 220,000 in one year, and preschool teacher-training colleges were forced to switch en masse to the field of elderly care.
2026-08-12
On August 12, 2026, the Ministry of Civil Affairs released statistics showing that in the first half of the year, nationwide marriage registrations fell by 264,000 pairs year-on-year, a drop of about 7.5%, while divorce registrations increased year-on-year.
2026-08
In August 2026, Heilongjiang Province drew attention for failing to publish birth rates, death rates, and natural growth rates in its statistical bulletins on national economic and social development for three consecutive years, making it the only province in the country to withhold these indicators.
2026-08
In August 2026, media reports quoted sources from local tax and human resources and social security departments confirming that audits of social insurance contribution bases have been tightened, with multiple regions requiring full actual contributions within three to five years; the related policies have triggered public discussion about the contribution burden.
2026-07-27
Lu Kewen posted that, excluding rural elderly, China's pensions are higher than those in Japan, South Korea, and France when calculated by the ratio of national income, and argued that this situation puts excessive pressure on public finance and will inevitably lead to comprehensive cuts in the future.
2026-04
According to online reports, since April 2026, multiple counties and prefecture-level cities, in a push to meet marriage registration targets, have been taking elderly couples in their 80s and 90s from surrounding villages who had never registered their marriages to civil affairs bureaus to retroactively register them; some of the elderly do not even have second-generation ID cards.
2025-08-15
An article published in China Social Security Magazine on August 15, 2025 introduced a “social insurance bank loan” product launched by Jingmen Rural Commercial Bank in Hubei, offering low-interest loans to flexible workers who have difficulty paying contributions so that they can pay their social security contributions, claiming it achieves a three-way win of enhanced social security credit, customer acquisition for the bank, and benefits for the public. The article was dug up by netizens in October 2026 and sparked heated discussion.
2025-06-19
On June 19, 2025, the Department of Human Resources and Social Security of Hubei Province launched the "Sheyin Loan" service, claiming that through "precise drip irrigation" it will ease the public's shortage of funds for contributions and prevent interruptions in social insurance payments.
2025
In 2025, China's birth population was 7.92 million, with a birth rate of only 5.63 per thousand, ranking second to last in the world.
2025
Data from Chinese Communist Party civil affairs departments shows that in 2025 there were 6.765 million marriage registrations nationwide, while the total number of divorces reached 3.937 million, with a marriage-to-divorce ratio as high as 58.2%, setting the highest record in the world under circumstances other than major disasters.
2025
Yicai, citing data from the China Statistical Yearbook 2026, points out that China's old-age dependency ratio is 23.1%, surpassing the child dependency ratio of 22% for the first time.
2020
The 2020 seventh national census showed that China's newborn sex ratio has remained imbalanced since 1990, reaching 121 to 100 in 2004, with 34.9 million more men than women nationwide, of whom marriage-age men aged 20 to 40 outnumber women by 17 million.
2016
In 2016, China fully lifted its two-child policy, but in 2017 the number of births fell instead of rising, coming in millions short of projections.
2015
Zhai Zhenwu, a demographer at Renmin University of China, published an article opposing the lifting of the two-child policy, claiming that if it were fully lifted immediately, the annual peak of births would reach 49.95 million; in 2017, actual births fell instead of rising, his prediction failed, yet he still serves as president of the China Population Association.
2007
In 2007, demographer Yi Fuxian published Big Country, Empty Nest, arguing that China's population data was falsified and that family planning should be abolished; he was subsequently banned and went into exile overseas.
2004
In 2004, demographers including Gu Baochang and Wang Feng jointly petitioned the central authorities, recommending that the one-child family planning policy be changed to a two-child policy. Gu Baochang was cold-shouldered, and Wang Feng was silenced.
1981
In 1981, China established the National Family Planning Commission. Over the following 20-plus years it grew into a massive bureaucratic system, with full-time family planning public employees reaching 800,000 by 2000.
1978
In 1978, after missile expert Song Jian went abroad for exchanges, he and Tian Xueyuan and others used mathematical models to calculate, claiming that if China did not control its population, it would reach 4.264 billion by 2080; Tian Xueyuan also proposed that China's population ceiling should be 650 million to 700 million, providing a basis for family planning.