China, the world’s largest country by population, has the lowest population rate since the 1960s.
That means China’s birth rate has reached a 60-year low despite the one-child policy being scrapped in 2015 to boost the population.
Due to the growing population of the elderly in China and concerns over declining birth rates, the Chinese government scrapped the one-child policy in 2015, allowing couples to have two children.
This policy was implemented in 2016 after which the birth rate increased but gradually started declining again.
In 2019, 580,000 babies were born in China, the lowest since 1961, compared to more than 14.6 million in 2018.
The Chinese government released its census results every decade, showing that the total population had grown by 5.38% to 1.41 billion by 2020.
Birth rates in China averaged 0.53 percent a year, up from 0.57 percent in 2000-2019.
The drop in birth rates was not unexpected but better than expected, but it also indicates a decline in interest in having children in China.
Delayed marriages, high costs, and other factors have led to a decline in birth rates.
According to the Chinese Department of Statistics, 12 million children were born in 2020, which is 2,065,000 less than in 2019.
Overall, the birth rate in 2020 dropped by 18% compared to 2019.
China had set a total population target of 1.42 billion by 2020 in 2016, but it was not achieved.
The census also found that the number of people over the age of 65 in China has increased from 8.9 percent of the total population in 2010 to 13.5 percent now.
During this period, the population of Boon increased by 1.35% while the number of the able-bodied population remained stable.
Ning Jizhi, deputy head of the census group, acknowledged that the population had grown modestly.
He said that the number of women of childbearing age is declining, while the birth of children among the people is also being halted due to the increase in the cost of raising children, for all these reasons. Birth rates throughout the world have dropped dramatically already.
He said that this is a natural consequence of China’s economic and social development, but the increase in the aging population will put pressure on it on a long-term basis.
At present, the average birth rate per couple in China is 0.53%, the lowest since the early 1960s.
