China’s population has declined for the first time since 1961. The country’s population declined by about 850,000 in the past year. It has Chinese National Bureau of Statistics announced Tuesday.
According to the Bureau of Statistics, the country currently has a population of 1,411.75 billion. Some 9.56 people were born last year, while 10.41 million people died. In 2022, China had the highest death rate since 1974, namely 7.37 deaths per thousand inhabitants. Whether the increased number of deaths may have been caused by Covid-19 is not clear.
The birth rate also fell sharply, from 7.52 babies per thousand inhabitants to 6.77. It is the lowest birth rate since birth statistics were kept.
Since 2016, the one-child policy has been abolished in China and the government has encouraged families to have two or three children. However, this has had little success: many parents often opt for one child because of the high costs of raising children in Chinese cities.
China is still the most populous country in the world. India is second with a population of 14.08 billion. The United Nations estimated last year that India will replace China this year as nation with the most inhabitants.
The last time China recorded a population decline was during the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s. Mao Zedong’s disastrous push for collective farming and industrialization then led to a massive famine that killed tens of millions of people.
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