BEIJING, May 25 -- Authorized by the State Council, 21 provincial-level regions of China, including Beijing and Tianjin, will implement a cross-regional marriage and divorce registration policy on a trial basis.

The pilot policy will come into force from June 1, according to a press conference held by the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) on Thursday.

Under the new policy, the Chinese mainland residents who plan to get married can choose marriage registries in places of habitual residence of either the bride or groom instead of having to return to their household registration places as previously regulated.

Before this, seven of the 21 provincial-level regions have piloted cross-regional marriage registration since June 2021, and five of them also allowed cross-regional registration for divorce.

More than 125,000 couples have benefited from the pilot program, according to the MCA.

With an increasing number of people not living or working in places of household registration, the expanded program now covers about 78.5 percent of the Chinese population, said Wang Jinhua, an MCA official.

Chinese marriage registries handle marriage or divorce registration and reissue marriage certificates for about 18 million couples on average annually, said the MCA.