China's Bride Shortage

People complain about the singles scene no matter where they live, but men looking to find the right woman and get married in China may have the worst luck of all, as the country faces an epidemic bride shortage, according to new reports.

The latest news says there will be 24 million men who aren't able to find a wife. Social scientists say this could be largely because of China's controversial one-child-only policies, restricting each family to one child. This has led to families pursuing a preference for male babies, and selectively aborting pregnancies when parent found out it would be a female baby. Many other baby girls have reportedly been abandoned and wound up in orphanages or worse, thanks to this policy. And now it is coming back to haunt China in yet another way.

China's Bride Shortage
sky

China is officially suffering from a shortage of women with 24 million eligible men predicted to be without wives by 2020, state media says. One reason for the huge discrepancy between the sexes is the country's one-child policy which has led to selective abortion of female foetuses, said a study from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The gender imbalance means there will be more marriages within different generations, the study says, with more young men married to much older women...

China's Bride Shortage