China population

BBC Future answers five key questions about China's recent population decline and what it might mean for global demographic trends.

– indicating that one in every 11 men will [struggle to find a partner](https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1209713.shtml) the same age. At the moment, they are not proving particularly effective, but some experts are concerned that they may [adopt more coercive tactics](https://www.newsweek.com/forced-procreation-coming-china-opinion-1598389#:~:text=During%20the%20existence%20of%20this,the%20first%20day%20of%202016.). These issues were compounded during the Covid-19 pandemic, when resentment about lockdowns and other restrictions led to the hashtag #wearethelastgeneration [trending on social media](https://www.reuters.com/world/china/more-chinese-women-delay-or-give-up-having-babies-after-zero-covid-ordeal-2022-08-08/). China's fertility rates are expected to continue to decline, particularly as the population ages and there are fewer women of child-bearing age overall. The charity Population Matters has suggested that China's stabilising numbers should be [celebrated](https://populationmatters.org/statement-on-chinas-population-17-01/) for their potential environmental benefits and the welfare of the country's citizens. [ONE-FOURTH OF THE WORLD](https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1982/10/28/251281.html?pageNumber=1)". So, though the number of babies born per woman declined drastically, there were still more babies being born [than there were people dying](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chinas-population-destiny-the-looming-crisis/). [1.515 billion by 2030](https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/TOT/356). [its numbers have started shrinking for the first time in 60 years](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-64300190). In light of the census results, some commentators have even speculated that this may have China's one-child policy was introduced in 1980, with the explicit objective of reducing population growth to zero. The goal: to find out how many people there were in the country at that exact moment in time.

Why the world's most populous country (for now) is experiencing population decline.

As one young Shanghai protester [told](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/01/17/china-population-shrinking-decline-crisis/) coronavirus workers in a video that went viral last year, “we are the last generation.” It’s up to the Chinese government to ensure that’s not the case. [tries to compel](https://twitter.com/profsciubba/status/1615343806454317057?s=20&t=CbV0hlhP9CwwOKvBIqgAzQ) its citizens to have more children with the same heavy hand it once used to prevent them from doing just that. And those trends will reinforce each other — younger Chinese [are already citing](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/31/chinese-couples-react-to-three-child-policy) the burden of caring for elderly parents as one reason to have fewer or no children. While such financial incentives might prompt couples to have a child earlier than they had planned, there’s [little evidence](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/04/baby-bonuses-fit-the-nationalist-agenda-but-do-they-work) the programs can convince a childless couple to have a kid, or lastingly increase birthrates. In the end, China could [get old before it gets rich](https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/china-could-be-the-first-country-to-get-old-before-it-gets-rich-and-the-implications-are-profound-20210517-p57sj6.html). [had fallen to just 1.15](https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/companies/news/1003452/china-s-population-falls-for-first-time-since-1960s-1003452.html), nearly a full child below the replacement rate of 2.1. That was less of a problem when older adults could count on being taken care of by their children, but decades of the one-child policy has left an inverted pyramid [known as “4-2-1,”](https://time.com/5523805/china-aging-population-working-age/) with four grandparents and two parents depending on one child. Unlike then, when the median Chinese was in [their highly productive early 20s](https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-productivity-more-important-than-its-ageing-population-kemp-2021-05-12/), that smaller China will be far older. Combined with a [short but drastic drop in the birthrate](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.TFRT.IN?locations=CN), China [shrank](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=CN) by roughly 700,000 people between 1960 and 1961. [fuel in China’s economic rocket engine](https://china.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/china_dd_study_abstract-en.pdf). [may have already lost](https://time.com/6247720/india-most-populous-country-china/) its position as the world’s most populous country to a still-surging India. Once Chinese leader Mao abandoned the forced industrialization policies that led to the Great Famine, however, China’s fertility rate quickly rebounded and deaths fell, and today [more than twice as many Chinese](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL?locations=CN) are alive as were in 1961.

Mortality: A country's population increases with a reduction in the relative number of deaths, while population growth slows/reverses with declining fertility ...

It fell to single digits of 7.3 in 2020 (7.4 for India). - The total fertility rate (TFR) – the number of babies an average woman (aged 15-49) bears over her lifetime – was as high as 5.8 for China and 5.7 for India in 1950. - The crude death rate (CDR) – the number of persons dying per year per 1,000 population – was 23.2 for China in 1950 (22.2 for India). Direction: The article highlights the shifts in the population of India (increasing) and China (decreasing) and the implications of the shift. - This is a landmark event, for a country that is soon set to be surpassed by India (as per UN projections, India’s population is expected to reach 1,428.6 million in 2023) as home to the greatest number of people. - According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, its population fell to 1,411.8 million in 2022, from 1,412.6 million in the previous year.

The primary cause does not appear to be an unusually high number of deaths this time as in 1962 millions of people died in a man-made famine caused by Mao ...

According to the UN, India's population will surpass China's in April. The figure is predicted to more than treble by 2050. A decade ago, the total fertility rate (the average number of children a woman is predicted to have in her lifetime based on current birth rates) was 1.7. However, according to an official estimate issued by state media, this would amount to only approximately 8 per cent of the entire cost. The primary cause does not appear to be an unusually high number of deaths this time. In a surprising development, China's population witnessed a decrease for the first time since the 1960s.

The United Nations' (UN's) prescribed fertility rate is 2.1 births per woman. On Tuesday, data from China's National Statistics Bureau showed that the country's ...

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A country that once limited most families to having only one child to restrict population growth is now experiencing more deaths than births. As The Washington ...

data suggests that India saw a reduction in the number of international immigrants in the country from 2010 to 2020. Now compare that natural change to the overall population change in each state. And the United States, unlike China, has multiple robust avenues to ensure that growth. If we subtract the annual number of deaths from the annual number of births, we get a metric called natural population change. So, for example, we can see that the natural population change was positive in most states from 2010 to 2020, the exceptions being Maine, Vermont and West Virginia. China and Japan each saw increases, about 200,000 in the former case and 600,000 in the latter. [showed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/12/20/new-census-data-reinforces-how-central-immigration-is-population-growth-us/?itid=lk_inline_manual_22) how every single state saw a net population increase relative to 2010 thanks to international immigration. Thanks to data from the Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we can look at birth and death data over time for each U.S. Here, for example, are the annual numbers of births and deaths from 1950 to 2021 in China, India, the United States and Japan — the poster child for a nation where population decline is powered by low birthrates. (You can also see the horrifying effects of the famine that struck China in the late-1950s.) Note that the vertical scale of the charts above is specific to each country. But it also serves as a reminder of the important role that immigration plays in boosting the United States’ own population growth.

In today's DNA, Zee News' Rohit Ranjan will talk about the significance of China's declining population and its effect on the country's economy.

The declining population is giving rise to a new problem in China, a decline in young people and an increase in the number of elderly people. In today's DNA, Zee News' Rohit Ranjan will talk about the significance of China's declining population and India overtaking it as the most populous country. This is a significant shift as China has long been considered the most populous country in the world.

Less than a decade ago, China was still banning most couples from having more than one child. The one-child policy aimed to restrain the growth of a nation with ...

And it has to contend with their shift about what China's population looks like and the imaginary of what it means to be Chinese nowadays. It often has to do with their sense of self, their - what an ideal life and what an ideal family is to them. This is not going to work in the long run, and people can look at the numbers and see that there's going to be a problem soon. That has been the consensus, that had there not been the one-child policy, given the socioeconomic development, population or fertility would have declined. And China's past development of the last several decades has been reliant on a population that's often rural, young and male. China's one-child policy was based on pseudoscientific demographic projections that at the time - when China was coming out of the culture revolution - the Chinese leadership thought restricting one child to every married heterosexual couple would produce or would design a population size that is most optimal for China's economic development.

The demographic long-term crisis in China could lead the ruling party to take more risks.

Meanwhile, China is watching the West and Russia and the fighting in Ukraine and China is learning. The US and the West are talking differently now and so is China. Before the West can re-arm enough, and while China has a young generation of nationalists thirsty for more power, perhaps the new data could cause policies that lead to destabilization in the world. This is said to be due to the new middle class that wants to invest in one child to succeed and sees affording kids as difficult. This does not converge with the West as some hoped, testimony to the US-China Economic Review Commission in 2020 noted. China has also made inroads in other places in the Middle East. For many years under Deng Xiaoping and later Jiang Zemin China was seen to be reforming and opening up to the West when in reality it had as a motto the notion to “bide its time and hide its capabilities.” This was brought to fruition by Hu Jintao, who served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012. Nevertheless, the population in China is aging. Iran has trusted China as a future leader of the region and this caused Iran’s regime to put its eggs in the China and Russia basket, providing drones to Russia and hoping China will help Iran’s economy. The reports on this decline have many seeing a “bleak” future for China and also a “demographic crisis, according to some of the headlines reporting the major shift. According to the reports in 2021, there was an 18% decline in the number of babies born between 2019 and 2020. On the one hand, China’s declining birthrate and aging population can be seen as part of a global trend.

Anxiety and argument about China's new demographic era have been building as birthrates have slowed, especially in recent years. China's leaders have long known ...

After Tuesday’s data release, some on the Chinese internet said that despite government promises of a fairer deal for women, many employers did not want to employ women in better, steady jobs, because they did not want to deal with maternity leave and child care. Many young people, especially women, remain skeptical that the government is going to make it easier for them to both have children and remain in the formal work force. A shrinking, aging society is far from unique to China, even in Asia, and the effects will unfold over decades. “China’s proposed demographic reforms are drops in the bucket. China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has partly sought to tackle the long-term economic and social pressures from a shrinking, aging society more by lifting the limits on family size. Ren called for more energetic policy-making, including birth subsidies, stronger paternity and maternity leave, and improved protection of women’s rights in the workplace. And yet the sense of incipient crisis grew on Tuesday, when the government confirmed that the nation’s population shrank last year for the first time in six decades, sooner and sharper than many experts had forecast. After the latest population statistics were released, many suggested in various media the government’s moves may be too little and too late. In 2021, it increased the limit to three. Anxiety and argument about China’s new demographic era have been building as birthrates have slowed, especially in recent years. Policymakers have warned that China must prepare for a slowly shrinking population and an era of fewer workers and more retirees. Between paying for social welfare and building up China’s technological and military might.

A man and a child pass red lanterns hanging on trees for the upcoming Lunar New Year celebrations at a park in Beijing, China, on January 11. Wang Zhao/AFP/ ...

“We will pursue a proactive national strategy in response to population aging, develop elderly care programs and services, and provide better services for elderly people who live alone.” The country’s population is already aging and its workforce shrinking, placing tremendous pressure on the younger generation. “Our salaries are so low, while rent is so high and financial pressure so heavy. One village in southern Guangdong province announced in 2021 it would pay permanent residents with babies under 2 and a half years old up to $510 a month – which could add up to more than $15,000 in total per child. However, while Yi said India’s economy could one day surpass the US, it has some way to go yet. Other places have offered real estate subsidies for couples with multiple children. Many people – especially in cities – face stagnating wages, fewer job opportunities, and grueling work hours that make it both difficult and expensive to raise one child, let alone three. In 2015, it allowed couples to have two children, and in 2021 raised this to three. Alarmed by the falling birth rate in recent years, the government scrapped the rule. But many activists and women say it’s far from enough. There are social implications, too. Women have also reported facing

China can respond to a declining population by shifting its development model to focus on technology upgrading and fostering talent to improve productivity, ...

China’s working-age population – those between 16 and 59 years old – stood at 875.56 million at the end of 2022, down from 882.22 million a year before. Photo: AFP