The population in China is declining for the third year in a row due to a decline in the birth rate | Demographic news
China’s population continues to fall for the third year in a row due to falling birthrates and concerns about the economy.
population of China fell for the third year in a row 2024, while the demographic crisis continues to loom over the East Asian superpower.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Friday that China’s population has fallen by 1.39 million over the past 12 months to 1.408 billion as deaths continue to outnumber births.
China’s population has been falling steadily since the 1980s, but 2022 is the first time deaths have exceeded births since 1961, when China was in the midst of its disastrous Great Leap Forward plan, which led to a famine that killed an estimated 20 million people from starvation.
Recent efforts by Beijing to slow the decline in the birthrate have failed to slow what is a long-term trend, and the NBS acknowledged that the country faces several challenges.
“We must be aware that the negative effects of the external environment are increasing, domestic demand is insufficient, some companies have difficulties in production and operations, and the economy continues to face difficulties and challenges,” the Institute’s report states.
Beijing has used a variety of stick-and-carrot approaches to boost the birth rate, from labeling single women “leftovers” if they remain unmarried to making it harder to get a divorce or abortion, as well as offering subsidies to couples to support rising childcare costs.
Arranged marriages rose 12.4 percent year-on-year in 2023 after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a short-lived recovery 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 usually leads to a small baby boom across Asia, but experts say the general trend is down.
In 2016, China officially ended its “one-child policy,” which for decades sought to control the country’s growth, but ended up with a one-sided population due to a cultural preference for male children.
Families are now allowed to have three children from 2021, but the rising cost 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, meeting government forecasts, but gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to continue to slow in the coming years.
Faced with a demographic crisis, Beijing implemented new measures to gradually raise the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 63 for men, 55 to 58 for women in managerial and technical positions, and 55 for all other female workers.
China is not the only country in East Asia facing a demographic crisis.
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are also experiencing population declines for similar reasons as China, including immigration restrictions. China, like much of East Asia, also does not allow unmarried women access to fertility treatments, such as IVF.
