The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology, 2026, 8(4); doi: 10.25236/FSST.2026.080402.
Sijia Yang
Faculty of Geography, Yunnan Normal University, Kunming, China
Based on data from the Seventh National Population Census of 2020, this study constructs an indicator of the divorce rate and categorizes cities into four groups—megacities/ super-large cities, large cities, medium-sized cities, and small cities—to calculate and compare the rates by gender. The study found the following: First, the divorce rate exhibits a gradual increase as city size expands; second, gender differences in the divorce rate undergo a systematic reversal—from positive to negative—with city size, such that in megacities and super-large cities, the divorce rate among women is higher than that among men, whereas in small cities, the rate among men is significantly higher than that among women. This reversal also holds true for the divorce-to-marriage ratio, indicating that the inflection point is not caused by age structure but rather by genuine gender differences in marital stability. These findings suggest that city size influences both the level of divorce and its gender composition; therefore, cities of different sizes should adopt differentiated social policy interventions.
Divorce rates, Urban population size, Gender differences, Proportion of divorces, China
Sijia Yang. The Relationship between Urban Population Size and Divorce Rates in China in 2020. The Frontiers of Society, Science and Technology (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 4: 8-13. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSST.2026.080402.
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