China’s population has declined for the third year in a row as the birth rate declines Demographics News

China’s population continues to decline for the third year in a row due to a falling birth rate and amid concerns about the economy.

China’s population It decreased for the third year in a row In 2024, with the demographic crisis continuing to loom over the East Asian superpower.

The National Bureau of Statistics reported on Friday that China’s population has declined by 1.39 million over the past 12 months to 1.408 billion as deaths continue to outpace births.

China’s population has declined steadily since the 1980s, but 2022 marks the first time deaths have outnumbered births since 1961 when China was in the midst of the disastrous Great Leap Forward plan, which led to a famine in which an estimated 20 million people died. From famine.

Beijing’s recent efforts to slow the decline in the birth rate have failed to slow the long-term trend, and the National Bureau of Statistics has acknowledged that the country faces many challenges.

The Bureau said in its report: “We must realize that the negative impacts resulting from the external environment are increasing, local demands are insufficient, some companies are facing difficulties in production and operation, and the economy is still facing difficulties and challenges.”

Beijing has used a variety of carrot-and-stick tactics to increase the birth rate, from classifying single women as “leftovers” if they remain unmarried, to making it more difficult to obtain a divorce or abortion, as well as offering spouses subsidies to support marital life. High cost of childcare.

Marriage rates rose 12.4 percent year-on-year in 2023 after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a brief rebound in births in the first half of 2024 in some parts of the country.

Last year was also the auspicious Year of the Dragon in China, which typically leads to a small baby boom across Asia, but experts say the overall trend is downward.

China officially ended its “one-child policy” in 2016, which for decades sought to control the country’s growth but ended up with an unbalanced population due to a cultural preference for male children.

Families are now allowed to have three children from 2021, but rising costs of living in urban areas, a slowing economy, and high youth unemployment have made raising children a less attractive prospect for many young Chinese.

China’s economy grew by 5 percent in 2024, in line with government expectations, but GDP growth is expected to continue to slow in the coming years.

In the face of the demographic crisis, Beijing implemented new measures to gradually raise the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 63 years for men, from 55 to 58 years for women in managerial and technical positions, and 55 years for all other working women.

China is not the only country in East Asia facing a demographic crisis.

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are also seeing population declines for reasons similar to China, including restrictions on immigration. China, like most East Asian countries, also does not allow unmarried women to access fertility treatments, such as artificial insemination.