China ’s birth rate has fall down to its dispirited in decades and its total population is on track to start shrinking very soon , new statistics evoke .
China’sNational Bureau of Statisticsdropped its tardy update on the country ’s universe on Tuesday , showing the interior population was 1.4126 billion at the end of 2021 . That figure is up 480,000 people since the end of 2020 – but the annual increase pace of 0.034 percentage is the blue since theearly 1960s . The birth pace also fell to 7.52 births per 1,000 people , the down since 1949 when the chest lead off collating information .
The National Bureau of Statistics claims there were two prime cause for this “ continued slowdown in population growth . ” Firstly , they say the number of cleaning woman of childbearing age decreased by about 5 million last year , a movement that ’s retain in late years . Secondly , citizenry are marrying and having kids afterward in life than before . According to their analysis , people ’ first wedlock and first childbirth are now around 2 years later than 10 days ago .
base on these movement , many expert trust that China ’s universe may have reached its apex in 2021 and the area is now on the verge of long - terminus universe decay .
“ The demographic challenge is well known but the amphetamine of population aging is intelligibly quicker than expect , ” say Zhiwei Zhang , chief economic expert at Pinpoint Asset Management , according toReuters .
“ This suggests China ’s total population may have reached its elevation in 2021 . It also indicates China ’s possible growth is likely retard faster than expected , ” added Zhang .
Just like other countries in Asia , plus Europe and North America , China is make do with an aging population . Compared to 2020 , the population of the great unwashed age 15 and under decrease by 5.28 million , and the " workings long time " population age 16 to 59 increased by 2.47 million . At the other end of the weighing machine , the population maturate 65 and above increased by 9.92 million .
None of this is news to China . Last year , they unveiled a new insurance policy toallow – and actively encourage – couples to have up to three children in a pushback against their sharp declension in nascency rates .
This mark a radical shift from the People ’s Republic of China ’s infamous “ one - child insurance ” introduced in the late 1970s and ' fourscore in a button to curb the area ’s prospering population . This controversial policyended in 2015 , allow couples to have two children after it was realize the policy was cause universe numbers to slip too severely .
Elsewhere in the world , many other countries could be head towards a similar population plunge . In 2020 , a monolithic field in The Lancet projected that theglobal population will declinewithin the next century , the first time it ’s done so since the Black Death in the 14th century . The global population was forecast to grow over the next few decades and crown in 2064 at around 9.7 billion mass , before falling to 8.8 billion by 2100 .
In that analysis , China ’s population was predicted to slide down to 732 million by 2100 , but they were n’t the only part of the world to experience such a decay . Up to 23 countries could see their populations funk by more than 50 percentage , including Japan , Thailand , Italy , Spain , Portugal , South Korea . The only region of the world that are forecasted to see a boost in population numbers by the conclusion of the 21st century are North Africa , the Middle East , and most prominently Sub - Saharan Africa .
