China's population shrank in 2022 for the first time in more than 60 years as the world's most populous country experiences an aging society and a declining birth rate.
The authority said in a press statement that 9.56 million births were recorded, compared to 10.41 million deaths.
The country's population stood at around 1,411,750,000 as 2022 ended, a decline of 850,000 from the end of 2021, according to Beijing's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported.
A total of 9.56 million births were recorded against 10.41 million deaths, the NBS said at a briefing.
This is the first time that China's population has shrunk since 1961 when the Asian nation experienced the worst famine in its modern history, attributed to Mao Zedong's disastrous agricultural policy known as the Great Leap Forward.
The bureau added that the number of men continued to outpace the number of women as the male-to-female ratio reached 722.06 million to 689.69 million, as a result of China's strict one-child policy that only officially ended in 2016 and the traditional preference for male sons moving forward. family name.
After abandoning the one-child policy, Beijing began allowing couples to have up to three children in 2021. However, the move did not reverse the demographic decline.
The cost of raising children in China's cities is often cited as a reason behind the failure.
In some parts of the country, local authorities have launched measures to encourage couples to have children.
In Shenzhen, a huge city in the south of China, there is a maternity allowance, and the allowance is paid until the child is three years old.
A Couple who has their first child will receive 3,000 yuan (€410, $443), a figure that rises to 10,000 yuan for their third child.
In Jinan, a monthly stipend of 600 yuan has been paid since January 1 to couples who have a second child.
In the long term, UN experts see China's population shrinking by 109 million by 2050, more than three times the drop in their previous forecast in 2019.
India is poised to soon overtake China as the most populous country on the planet if it hasn't already.
Estimates have shown that the population of India is over 1.4 billion and continues to rise.
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