As of June 2021, around **** percent of men and about ** percent of women are single in China. The gap is likely to be caused by the imbalanced gender ratio in China.

In 2024, there were around 719 million male inhabitants and 689 million female inhabitants living in China, amounting to around 1.41 billion people in total. China's total population decreased for the first time in decades in 2022, and population decline is expected to accelerate in the upcoming years. Birth control in China From the beginning of the 1970s on, having many children was no longer encouraged in mainland China. The one-child policy was then introduced in 1979 to control the total size of the Chinese population. According to the one-child policy, a married couple was only allowed to have one child. With the time, modifications were added to the policy, for example parents living in rural areas were allowed to have a second child if the first was a daughter, and most ethnic minorities were excepted from the policy. Population ageing The birth control led to a decreasing birth rate in China and a more skewed gender ratio of new births due to boy preference. Since the negative economic and social effects of an aging population were more and more felt in China, the one-child policy was considered an obstacle for the country’s further economic development. Since 2014, the one-child policy has been gradually relaxed and fully eliminated at the end of 2015. However, many young Chinese people are not willing to have more children due to high costs of raising a child, especially in urban areas.

All around the world, more and more people are single and live alone. In 2018, there were about 200 million single adults residing in China and more than a third of them lived alone. The world’s most populous country has been facing an increasing trend of delaying marriage and a rising divorce rate in recent years.

What makes tying the knot so hard? Getting married could be a long struggle for many Chinese adults. Owing to the decades-long one-child policy and the preference for a male child, China has an imbalanced sex ratio with over 30 million more men than women in 2018. The male ratio was particularly high in provinces like Guangdong and Tianjin. Furthermore, certain socio-economic expectations make searching for a life partner hard among the Chinese. A potential bride or bridegroom is expected to be multifaceted with emphasis laid on physical appearance alongside personal traits. A 2019 survey showed that many Chinese residing in big cities had the expectation that an ideal partner must earn a competitive salary.

Happily ever after? One might ask “Has this quest for the ideal lover been successful?” Based on the spike in China’s marriage rate in 2013, one might agree. However, many fairytale romances were short-lived with the country’s divorce rate having shot up and the marriage rate having declined to 7.3 percent by 2018.

The gender or sex ratio in China has been a contentious issue since the introduction of the one-child policy in 1979, intended to limit the population of the country. Although the policy is no longer in place, the population gender difference throughout the country is still evident. In 2023, fifteen to nineteen-year-old children had the largest gender disparity of 115.3 males to every 100 females. Gender imbalance While the difference of gender at birth has been decreasing in the country over the past decade, China still boasts the world’s most skewed sex ratio at birth at around 110 males born for every 100 females as of 2023. That means there are about 31 million more men in the country than women. This imbalance likely came from the country’s traditional preference for male children to continue the family lineage, in combination with the population control policies enforced. Where does that leave the population? The surplus of young, single men across the country poses a risk for China in many different socio-economic areas. Some of the roll-on effects include males overrepresenting specific labor markets, savings rates increasing, consumption reducing and violent crime increasing across the country. However, the adult mortality rate in China, that is, the probability of a 15-year-old dying before reaching age 60, was significantly higher for men than for women. For the Chinese population over 60 years of age, the gender ratio is in favor of women, with more females outliving their male counterparts.

ObjectiveTo further enhance the understanding of factors impacting female participation in the workforce based on health levels and to measure the excess work capacity of middle-aged and older female groups by residence and educational level.MethodsData of women aged 45–74 were accessed from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) from 2011, 2013, 2015, to 2018. The health status of women was comprehensively evaluated by single health variables and frailty index. A Probit model was used to measure the excess working capacity of women by region (rural/urban) and educational level, taking all women aged 45–49, rural women aged 45–49, and rural (illiterate) women in all age groups as the benchmark, respectively.ResultsThe excess capacity of all Chinese women aged 50–64 is 1.9 years, and that of women aged 50–74 is 5.1 years. The excess work capacity of women in urban and rural areas and with different educational levels is heterogeneous. The excess working capacity of urban women aged 50–64 is 6.1–7.8 years, and that of urban women aged 50–74 is 9.8–14.9 years. The excess working capacity of urban women aged 50–64 is about 6 times that of rural women. The excess work capacity of highly educated women was 3 times higher than that of illiterate women.ConclusionThe potential work capacity of Chinese women remains to be exploited, especially for urban and highly educated middle-aged and older women with better conditions of health, whose potential is more significant. A rational retirement policy for women and the progressive implementation of an equal retirement age for men and women will contribute to further advancement of gender equality and healthy aging in the workplace in China.

In 2023, the gender ratio in different regions in China varied greatly, from around 113.2 men per 100 women in Hainan province to only 97.1 men per 100 women in Liaoning. In most provinces in China, there are living more men than women, leading to a national gender ratio of around 104.2 men to 100 women in 2023.

BackgroundAccording to the Seventh National Census, China’s fertility rate is less than 1.5, marking a significant national issue with potential risks. To counter this low birth rate, the Chinese government has relaxed family planning policies and introduced supportive measures.PurposeChanges in birth policy have attracted considerable attention from the people of China. This article aims to study the public’s response to the three-child support policy using Weibo as a window. The goal is to provide a more balanced evaluation of current perspectives, enabling policymakers to formulate better fertility information, particularly when anticipating a poor public response to controversial policies.MethodologyThis research uses a crawler to gather data from Sina Weibo. Through opinion mining of Weibo posts on the three-child policy, Weibo users’ online opinions on the three-child policy are analyzed from two perspectives: their attention content and sentiment tendency. Using an interrupted time series, it examines changes in online views on the policy, matching policy documents to the time nodes of Weibo posts.FindingsThe public has shown great interest in and provided short-term positive feedback on policies related to improving maternity insurance, birth rewards, and housing subsidies. In contrast, there has been a continuous negative response to policies such as extending maternity leave, which has particularly sparked concerns among women regarding future employment and marital rights protection. On social media, the public’s attention to the three-child birth policy has focused mainly on the protection of women’s rights, especially legal rights after childbirth, and issues related to physical and mental health. Child-rearing support and economic pressure are also hot topics, involving the daily expenses of multichild families, childcare services, and housing pressure. However, this study also revealed that infertile or single women express a strong desire to have children, but due to limitations in the personal medical insurance system, this desire has not been fully satisfied.ContributionsOur study demonstrates the feasibility of a rapid and flexible method for evaluating the public response to various three-child supportive policies in China using near real-time social media data. This information can help policy makers anticipate public responses to future pandemic three-child policies and ensure that adequate resources are dedicated to addressing increases in negative sentiment and levels of disagreement in the face of scientifically informed but controversial, restrictions.

Forecast: Import of Knitted or Crocheted Women's Full-Length or Knee-Length Hosiery, Measuring per Single Yarn Less Than 67 Decitex to China 2023 - 2027 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

BackgroundCervical cancer has become a worldwide concern owing to its high incidence and mortality rates. To date, high-altitude areas of Tibet have not benefited from any large-scale cervical cancer screening programs. Therefore, we initiated a screening program to investigate the prevalence of human papilloma virus (HPV) and HPV genotype distribution to reveal cervical cancer and its precursor which lead to morbidity among women in the city of Nagqu in northern Tib3et.MethodsA total of 25,173 women were recruited to undergo HPV genotype tests between June and December 2019. Women infected with HPV 16 and/or 18 underwent colposcopy and histological examination. Women with other high-risk HPV type (hr-HPV) underwent cytological tests to determine whether to conduct further colposcopy and histological examination for diagnosis. HPV prevalence was calculated in the total population and further stratified according to various parameters, such as age group, area location (altitude level), and single or mixed infection status. The HPV genotype distribution was also investigated accordingly. Cervical lesions revealed by further colposcopic findings were also analyzed; high-grade and malignant lesion morbidities were calculated in total and in each county. Most data were collected and analyzed using descriptive and consistency check statistical methods, and a risk factor investigation for HPV infection was performed using logistic regression models.ResultsThe total HPV infection rate among women in Nagqu was 13.42%. Of the 25,173 women in the study, 999 (3.97%) were HPV 16/18 positive, 2,379 (9.45%) were other hr-HPV-positive, and 21,795 (86.58%) were HPV-negative. The five most common HPV genotypes, accounting for more than 60% of all HPV infections in Nagqu people, were HPV 16, 58, 31, 18, and 52. Tibetan women younger than 20 years and older than 60 years were the two age groups with the highest rates of HPV infection, 26.7% and 19.8%, respectively. Among the HPV-positive women, 2,656 (78.33%) were infected with a single strain and 732 (21.67%) were infected with multiple strains (more than two genotypes). HPV prevalence increased in high-altitude areas (positive rate highest in Nyima with an altitude of 5,000 m, 23.9%) and decreased in relatively low-altitude areas (positive rate lowest in Lhari with an altitude of 4,000 m, 6.6%). Multiple analyses showed that age, parity, age at first delivery, and altitude of residence were independent factors facilitating HPV infection in Tibetan women. High-grade and malignant cervical lesions revealed by histological findings were different among living locations, with the highest rates in Xainza, Baingoin, and Nyainrong, these being 2.019%, 1.820%, and 1.116%, respectively, among women in these areas.ConclusionOur survey provides an overall perspective on HPV genotype infection and cervical lesions in women in northern Tibet. The data not only provide useful information for the treatment of cervical lesions but also has great value in terms of the primary and secondary prevention measures that can be taken for women living in these regions.Clinical Trial Registrationwww.chictr.org.cn, indentifier ChiCTR2000035061.

PLEASE, CITE AS Kalabikhina IE, Kuznetsova PO, Zhuravleva SA (2024) Size and factors of the motherhood penalty in the labour market: A meta-analysis. Population and Economics 8(2): 178-205. https://doi.org/10.3897/popecon.8.e121438

Explanatory note 1: List of papers used in the meta-analysis - see the file "Meta_regression_analysis_papers".

The data is presented in WORD format.

Explanatory note 2: Set of data used in the meta-analysis - see the file "Meta_regression_analysis_table".

The data is presented in EXCEL format.

Description of table headers:

estimate_number - Number of the estimate

paper_number - Number of the paper

paper_name - Paper (year and first author)

paper_excluded - Paper was excluded from the final sample

survey - Data source

table_in_paper - Number of the table with the regression results in the paper

coeff - Regression coefficient for parenthood variable (estimate)

se - SE of the estimate

t - t-value of the estimate

ols - Estimate is obtained using the OLS method

fixed_effects - Estimate is obtained using the fixed effects method

panel - Model considers panel data (for several years)

quintile - Estimate is obtained using the quintile regression method

other - Estimate is obtained using other methods

selection_into_motherhood - Estimate is obtained allowing for selection into motherhood

hackman - Estimate is obtained allowing for selection into employment (Heckman procedure)

annual_earnings - Annual earnings are considered in the model

monthly_wage - Monthly wage is considered in the model

daily_wage - Daily wage is considered in the model

hourly_wage - Hourly wage is considered in the model

min_age_kid - Child's age (minimum)

max_age_kid - Child's age (maximum)

motherhood - Model uses a dummy variable of the presence of children

num_kids - Model uses a variable of the number of children

kid1 - Model uses a variable of the presence of one child

kid2p - Model uses a variable of the presence of two or more children

kid2 - Model uses a variable of the presence of two children

kid3p - Model uses a variable of the presence of three or more children

kid3 - Model uses a variable of the presence of three children

kid4p - Model uses a variable of the presence of three or more children

race/nationality - Model includes a race/ethnicity variable

age - Model includes the age variable

marstat - Model includes the marital status variable

oth_char_hh - Model includes any other variables of other household characteristics

settl_type - Model includes a variable of the type of settlement (urban, rural)

region - Model includes a variable of the region of the country

education - Model includes information on the level of education

experience - Model includes a variable of work experience

pot_experience - Model includes a variable of potential work experience, to be calculated from the data on age and number of years of education

tenure - Model includes a variable of the duration of employment at the current job

interruptions - Model includes a variable of employment interruptions (related to motherhood)

occupation - Model includes an occupation variable

industry - Model includes a variable of the industry of employment

union - Model includes a variable of trade union membership

friendly_conditions - Model includes a variable of the favourable working conditions for mothers (flexible schedule, possibility to work from home, etc.).

hours - Model includes a variable of the number of hours worked

sector - Model includes a variable of the type of employer ownership (public or private)

informal - Model includes a variable of informal employment

size_ent - Model includes a variable of the employer size

min_age_woman - Woman's age (minimum)

max_age_woman - Woman's age (maximum)

mean_age_woman - Woman's age (mean)

restricted - Sample is limited

private - Model considers only private sector employees

state - Model considers only public sector employees

full_time - Model considers only full-time workers

part_time - Model considers only part-time workers

better_educated - Model considers only women with a high level of education

lower_educated - Model considers only women with a low level of education

married - Model includes only married women

single - Model includes only single women

natives - Model includes only native women (born in the country)

immigrants - Model includes only immigrant women (born abroad)

race - Model includes only women of a particular race

min_year - Time period (minimum year)

max_year - Time period (maximum year)

journal - Type of publication

usa - Sample includes women from the USA

western_europe - Sample includes women from Western Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland)

north_europe - Sample includes women from Northern Europe (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden)

south_europe - Sample includes women from Southern Europe (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain)

east_centre_europe - Sample includes women from Central or Eastern Europe (Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine)

china - Sample includes women from China

Russia - Sample includes women from Russia

others - Sample includes women from other countries

country - Country name

In 2019, the female buyers during China's Singles' Day online sales accounted for **** percent of all online shoppers. That year, more than ** thousand e-commerce users shopped during Singles' Day sales.

PurposeOur understanding of breast cancer in very young women (≤35 years old) remains limited. We aimed to assess the clinicopathological characteristics, molecular subtype, and treatment distribution and prognosis of these young patients compared with patients over 35 years.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed non-metastatic female breast cancer cases treated at three Chinese academic hospitals between January 1, 2008, and December 31, 2018. Local recurrence-free survival (LRFS), disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were compared between different age groups and stratified with distinct molecular subtypes.ResultsA total of 11,671 women were eligible for the final analyses, and 1,207 women (10.3%) were ≤35 years at disease onset. Very young breast cancer women were more likely to be single or childless, have higher-grade disease, have more probability of lymphovascular invasion (LVI) in tumor and triple-negative subtype, and be treated by lumpectomy, chemotherapy especially more anthracycline- and paclitaxel-based chemotherapy, endocrine therapy plus ovarian function suppression (OFS), anti-HER2 therapy, and/or radiotherapy than older women (P < 0.05 for all). Very young women had the lowest 5-year LRFS and DFS among all age groups (P < 0.001 for all). When stratified by molecular subtype, very young women had the worst outcomes vs. women from the 35~50-year-old group or those from >50-year-old group for hormone receptor-positive (HR+)/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2−) subtype, including LRFS, DFS, and OS (P < 0.05 for all). In terms of LRFS and DFS, multivariate analyses showed similar results among the different age groups.ConclusionOur study demonstrated that very young women with breast cancer had higher-grade tumors, more probability of LVI in tumor, and more triple-negative subtype, when compared with older patients. They had less favorable survival outcomes, especially for patients with the HR+/HER2− subtype.

When it comes to an age difference in a relationship, the Chinese public has become more open-minded. According to a survey on the dating culture in China conducted in 2019, around ** percent of the single female respondents who were born between 1970 and 1979 stated that they would not mind to date a younger man.

According to an annual survey about Chinese women's workplace, the average monthly income of the female respondents in 2025 amounted to ***** yuan, about ** percent lower than the monthly salary of the male respondents. In the previous year, the average monthly income of female respondents was 8,958 yuan.

Wang Zhi Yi is the leading female badminton athlete from China, having scored ******* points from the tournaments she participated in as of January 2025. Following her is Han Yue, who has accumulated more than ****** points.