A nation in search of 30 million brides for 30 million bachelors – World – Times Online
China will be short of 30 million brides within 15 years, according to an official report into the country’s burgeoning population. About one in every ten men aged between 20 and 45 — equivalent to almost the entire population of Canada — will be unable to find a wife.
The Government is not yet ready to loosen its birth control policies and demonstrates pride in its achievement of preventing 400 million births through its one-child policy.
The authorities are instead promoting measures to curb the adoption of babies — almost all of whom are girls — by foreigners to ensure that they grow up in China.
The number of people of working age — between 15 and 64 — will increase from 860 million in 2000 to 1.01 billion in 2016, according to the report. That is more than the total in the world’s developed nations.
In the next 20 years, up to 300 million people will leave their farms and move to towns and cities. The report said: “Our country is currently experiencing the largest human movement and migration in history.”
China is having to cope with becoming the world’s first country to grow old before it grows rich. The number of people over 60 will jump from the current 143 million to 430 million by 2040.