China’s population dropped by 2 million people last year, the second straight annual drop as births fell and deaths jumped, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
The number of deaths rose by 690,000 to 11.1 million, more than double last year’s increase, bureau data showed.
Demographers were expecting a sharp rise in deaths, citing COVID-19 outbreaks that started at the end of the previous year and continued through February last year.
Photo: AFP
The total population stood at 1.4 billion, the bureau said.
China, long the most populated country in the world, last year dropped into second place behind India, according to UN estimates.
The number of births fell for the seventh year in a row, reflecting a fall in the birthrate that is a long-running economic and societal challenge for China.
The population is aging steadily, which could slow economic growth and challenge the nation’s ability to provide for a larger population of elderly people with fewer workers.
The number of births fell by 540,000, which was less than in previous years. About 9 million babies were born last year, half of the total in 2016, the bureau’s data showed.
All the figures are estimates based on surveys, and do not include Hong Kong and Macau. China conducts a full census every 10 years.
China, which once sought to control population growth with its one-child policy, is now facing the opposite problem. The government has sought to encourage births since gradually easing the policy over 2014 to 2016 to allow a second child and then a third child in 2021, but with little success.
People are marrying later and sometimes choosing not to have children. Even those who do often have only one child because of the high cost of education in cities in a highly competitive academic environment.
The population of women of child-bearing age has also fallen.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in October last year told the new leadership of the All-China Women’s Federation that it is necessary to improve guidance for young people’s views on marriage, parenthood and the family, and to promote policies that support parenthood, a report on a government Web site said.
“We must tell good stories about family customs, guide women to play a unique role in promoting the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation and establishing good family customs, and create a new culture of family civilization,” he was quoted as saying.
The working-age population, defined as those aged 16 to 59, fell to 61 percent of the total population, continuing a gradual decline, bureau data showed.
The proportion of those aged 60 or older rose to 21 percent. The official retirement age in China is 60 for men and 50 or 55 for women, the data showed.
The drop in population is expected to be less this year because of the waning effects of the pandemic and it is the Year of the Dragon, considered an auspicious year to have children, an expert said at a forum earlier this week, the English-language China Daily reported.
However, Yuan Xin (原新), a professor at Nankai University and vice president of the China Population Association, said that “the downward trend in China’s total population is bound to be long-term and become an inherent characteristic.”
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS