(Yicai) Nov. 11 -- China saw its No. 1 increase in first marriages in 10 years last year as the Covid-19 pandemic stopped hindering wedding planning.

Some 11.9 million people got married for the first time last year, up almost 14 percent from 2022, the first growth since a peak in 2013, according to a yearbook recently released by the stats bureau.

Last year, the number of new marriage registrations tallied nearly 7.7 million, the first rebound after a peak a decade ago, based on data released earlier by the Civil Affairs Bureau.

In 2022, especially during the fourth quarter, some couples decided to postpone their weddings until 2023 due to the pandemic, Dong Yuquan, a population expert, told Yicai. At the same time, offline dating between men and women was affected, said Dong who is also the president of the Guangdong Social Sciences Association.

Last year, more than 3.6 million couples got divorced, and the nationwide divorce rate was 2.56 per thousand residents. This is the first time that the rate has exceeded 2.1 per thousand since the implementation of the "cooling-off period" in 2021. In 2022 and 2021, the rates were 2.01 and 2.04, respectively.

Regionally, Guangdong province had the highest number of weddings last year, with 632,200 registrations. It was also the only province where the total number of new marriages rose above 600,000, ranking first in the country for two consecutive years. Guangdong also recorded over 1.1 million first marriages, making it the only province to surpass the one million mark.

The southern powerhouse, which surpassed Henan in 2007 as China's most populous province, has held the top spot in permanent population ever since. A large portion of the population consists of young workers migrating from other regions, attracted by Guangdong’s dynamic manufacturing and tech industries.

Following Guangdong, Henan recorded 574,000 marriages last year, while Shandong ranked third with 481,600 marriages. Sichuan and Jiangsu reported 480,200 and 452,800 marriages, respectively.

Editor: Emmi Laine