The death rate in China’s capital, Beijing, surpassed its birthrate last year, official data showed on Tuesday, pushing its natural population growth into negative territory for the first time since 2003.
The death rate in the city of 21.84 million, one of the country’s most populous urban centers, rose to 5.72 deaths per 1,000 people, while the birthrate fell to 5.67 births per 1,000 people, data released by the Beijing government showed.
The city’s population decline was in line with national trends, with China’s population falling last year for the first time in six decades, weighed down by rising living costs especially in big, sprawling cities like Beijing, weak economic growth and changing attitudes toward raising a family.
Photo: AFP
“These figures are expected, especially for Beijing,” said Peng Xiujian (彭秀健), senior research fellow at the Centre of Policy Studies at Victoria University in Australia.
The birthrates in Beijing and other cities and provinces are calculated based on permanent residents, not including the migrant population, she said.
“Given the high living and education cost, and education levels in Beijing, it is very normal that the birthrate of permanent residents is low,” she said, adding that Beijing’s figures were consistent with the national average.
In early December last year, a nationwide lifting of strict COVID-19 curbs triggered a wave of infections and caused an unknown number of deaths.
Beijing’s natural population growth was minus-0.05 per 1,000 people last year.
The data was based on a sample survey that began on Nov. 1 last year, according to a footnote in the release, which did not specify how long the survey took.
China’s birthrate last year was 6.77 births per 1,000 people, the lowest on record, while the country’s death rate, the highest since 1974, was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people.
Concerned by China’s shrinking population, political advisers to the government have come up with more than 20 recommendations to boost birthrates, although experts say the best they can do is slow the population’s decline.
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