Where Are the Excessive Men? Multi-Dimension of Social Stratification in China’s Domestic Marriage Market

Yingchun Ji, National University of Singapore
Feinian Chen, University of Maryland
Gavin W. Jones, National University of Singapore

As the most populous country and the fastest growing economy for decades, China has experienced unprecedented socioeconomic transformations in the last several decades, including demographic changes like hugely skewed sex ratio and deteriorating social inequality. This research thus intends to map out how social stratification structures the domestic marriage market in different dimensions in the context of rapidly rising social inequality and skewed sex ratio. Using the China 2010 Census data, we investigate the sex ratio among never married men and women over age 15. We focus on social stratification in the following dimension: regional difference, urban/rural divide, educational attainment, and ethnicity. We found men who are from rural areas, having no education, and who are ethnic minority are disadvantaged in the marriage market. We have concerns particularly for uneducated, ethnic minority men from migrant-sending Southwest and South provinces, including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing, Hunan, Guangxi and Hainan.