Rabat – China recorded a population decline in 2022 for the first time in over six decades, data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics showed on Tuesday.
The country’s population dropped by 850,000 at the end of 2022 compared to the same time in the previous year. China’s population notably fell from 1,412.6 million at the end of 2021 to 1,411.75 million at the end of 2022.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics indicated that the country recorded 9.56 million births in 2022, with a birth rate of 6.77 per 1,000 people, compared to 7.52 in 2021.
Meanwhile, the East Asian country recorded 10.41 million deaths in the same year, with the report noting that China’s natural population growth dropped to -0.60 per 1,000 people.
In regard to gender, the male population stood at 722.06 million, while the female population recorded was 689.69 million at the end of last year.
The decline in China’s birth rate is an unexpected turn of events in a nation that once enforced a one-child policy to curb population growth.
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China’s concerning drop in birth rate, which occurred amid continuous COVID-19 lockdowns and a stagnating economy, might lead to a demographic crisis, as well as pose challenges to the country’s developing economy.
China’s population aged between 16 and 59 (875.56 million) accounted for 62% of the total population at the end of 2022. However, the Asian country could possibly face an increasingly aging population in the future if the current trends continue, leading to a shortage in the labor force.
Despite China’s efforts to encourage having more children, the decades-old one-child policy, which was scrapped in 2016, remains an unchangeable standard among most Chinese couples.
The United Nations’ 2022 World Population Prospects report forecasted that India is on track to replace China as the most populated country in the world by 2023.
