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.”
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