(Yicai Global) March 21 -- Divorces in China were down 43 percent last year from the year before as fewer people choose to tie the knot and after a 30-day cooling-off period was brought in by authorities in January last year to screen impulsive decisions, experts said.

Some 2.1 million couples split up in 2021, according to data released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on March 18. Central Henan, the most populous province, had the greatest number of divorces at 152,000 followed by southwestern Sichuan province. Ten provinces had over 100,000 couples parting ways.

The 30-day cooling-off period, during which either party can withdraw his/her application for divorce, serves as a buffer for couples who make hasty decisions, and appears to be working, said Dong Yuzheng, a population expert and head of the Guangdong Academy of Population Development.

There are also less people getting hitched. Marriages were at their lowest level since 1986 last year, with just 7.6 million couples tying the knot, according to the ministry. People are getting married later and later and the Covid-19 pandemic has not helped people’s life views, Dong said.

There are also fewer women than before, due to the country’s falling birthrate, Dong said. Last year, there were five million less women between the ages of 15 and 49 than there were in 2020.

Another reason why divorces are down is because previously couples in major cities had to divorce in order to escape house purchase curbs, Zhang Dawei, chief analyst at Centaline Property Agency, told Yicai Global. Yet in the past two years, these rules no longer apply amid the cooling real estate market, so there are fewer people splitting up.

Editor: Kim Taylor