China’s population increased by less than half a million in 2021, recording a drop in births for the fifth consecutive year, latest national data showed on Monday with officials saying that the country’s population has entered a “zero growth” period.
China recorded 10.62 million births in 2021, or only 7.5 births per 1,000 people, the national bureau of statistics (NBS) said. It marked the lowest growth rate since the founding of new China under the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1949.
In demographic terms, new births managed to outnumber deaths with the population growing by 480,000 to 1.4126 billion.
The number of deaths recorded in 2021 was 10.14 million. New births in 2021 dropped 11.6% from 12.02 million in 2020; it had registered a sharp 18% plunge that year from 14.65 million in 2019.
Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, said multiple factors were responsible for China’s falling population.
A primary reason is the continued decrease in the number of women of childbearing age, as 2021 saw about 5 million fewer women of childbearing age between 15 and 49 than in the previous year.“Other factors included delaying marriage and births due to the fertility concept of couples and the pandemic,” Ning was quoted as saying by state media.
Ning said at the end of 2021, the working-age population aged 16-59 was 882 million, accounting for 62.5% of the total population; the population aged 60 and above was 267 million, accounting for 18.9% of the total population, and the population aged 65 and above was 200 million, accounting for the total population 14.2%.
“The demographic challenge is well known but the speed of population ageing is clearly faster than expected,” Zhang Zhiwei, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, was quoted as saying by the AFP.
“It also indicates China’s potential growth is likely slowing faster than expected,” he said.
