China’s population is to begin to shrink by 2025, officials said, as family sizes grow smaller and citizens age.
The world’s most populous country has been grappling with a looming demographic crisis as it faces a rapidly aging workforce, slowing economy and its weakest population growth in decades.
Although officials relaxed the nation’s strict “one-child policy” in 2016 and last year allowed couples to have three children, the birthrate has plunged to a record low.
Photo: AFP
“The growth rate of the total population has slowed down significantly, and it will enter a stage of negative growth in the ‘14th Five-Year Plan’ period,” the Chinese National Health Commission said on Monday, referring to the period from last year to 2025.
In January, authorities said that forecasts expected the population to enter zero growth “or even negative growth” in that five-year span.
“Presently, our country’s policy system for childbirth support is not perfect, and there is a big gap with population development and the people’s expectations,” the commission said in its latest report.
The total fertility rate has dropped below 1.3 in the past few years, while the country is expected to enter a stage of severe aging near 2035, with more than 30 percent of the population older than 60, it said.
Families are also becoming smaller, “weakening” the functions of pension and childcare, the commission said, calling for improving child-raising support and for policies on housing, education and taxation to help reduce burdens on families.
Authorities in some parts of China are already introducing family-friendly policies in a bid to combat the slowing birthrate.
The eastern city of Hangzhou on Monday announced that families with three children would be able to borrow 20 percent more than the maximum limit when applying for housing provident fund loans for the first time.
Other cities such as Nanchang and Changsha have also rolled out supportive policies, state media said.
Higher costs of living and a cultural shift as people grow used to smaller families have been cited as reasons behind the lower number of babies.
The “one-child policy” was introduced by then-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) in 1980 to curb population growth and promote economic development, with some exceptions made for rural families and ethnic minorities.
The global population is expected to reach 8 billion in November, UN projections showed, with India on course to surpass China as the world’s most-populous country next year.
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