Chinese pick pets over kids as shifting demographic trends reshape economy

Pets are likely to outnumber infants and toddlers in China starting this year, as people have grown increasingly unwilling to have children amid a decline in women of childbearing age, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report.

The findings coincide with anticipations that marriages in the country could plunge to a nearly 45-year low in 2024, underscoring a raft of demographic challenges facing the world’s second-largest economy.