China’s population has declined for the first time in 60 years
2023.01.17 07:52
China’s population has declined for the first time in 60 years
By Ray Johnson
Budrigannews.com – China’s population fell for the first time in six decades last year, a historic turn that is expected to signal the beginning of a long period of citizen population decline with significant repercussions for the country’s economy and the rest of the world.
Predictions that India will become the world’s most populous nation this year are also supported by the drop, which is the worst since 1961, the final year of China’s Great Famine.
The National Bureau of Statistics of China reported that by the end of 2022, the country’s population would have decreased by approximately 850,000 to 1.41175 billion.
U.N. experts predict that China’s population will fall by 109 million people by 2050, more than three times as much as they predicted in 2019.
Domestic demographers have lamented that China will age before it becomes wealthy, slowing the economy as revenues fall and government debt rises as health and welfare costs soar.
The demographic and economic outlook for China is significantly worse than anticipated. Yi Fuxian, a demographer, stated, “China will need to adjust its social, economic, defense, and foreign policies.”
He went on to say that the country’s declining manufacturing capacity and shrinking labor force would make high prices and high inflation in Europe and the United States even worse.
“Overall labor supply still exceeds demand,” the head of the national statistics bureau, Kang Yi, told reporters, “people should not worry about the decline in population.”
The birth rate in China that year was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people, which was the lowest birth rate ever recorded, down from 7.52 births in 2021.
According to Kang, there was a 4 million decrease in the number of Chinese women who were of childbearing age, which the government defines as being between 25 and 35.
The death rate was 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people, the highest since 1974 during the Cultural Revolution, compared to 7.18 deaths per 1,000 people in 2021.
IMPACT OF THE ONE-CHILD POLICY
China’s one-child policy, which was in place from 1980 to 2015, and sky-high education costs have discouraged many Chinese from having more than one child or any at all. This has contributed to a significant portion of the demographic decline.
When the data were made public on Tuesday, they became the most talked-about topic on Chinese social media. “#Is it really important to have children?” is one hashtag. had several hundred million hits.
“The main reason women don’t want to have kids isn’t because of them, but because society and men haven’t taken on the responsibility of raising kids. “This results in a significant decline in the spiritual and quality of life of women who give birth,” wrote one user under the username Joyful Ned.
Population experts have stated that China’s three-year-old stringent zero-COVID policies have further harmed the country’s demographic outlook.
Since 2021, tax deductions, longer maternity leave, and housing subsidies have been implemented by local governments to encourage more births. In October, President Xi Jinping also stated that the government would implement additional supportive policies.
But the measures haven’t stopped the long-term trend much so far.
China’s Baidu (NASDAQ:) searches for baby strollers online The number of searches for baby bottles has decreased by more than a third since 2018, and the number of searches for search engines has decreased by 17% since 2018. On the other hand, searches for senior care facilities increased by eightfold last year.
India is experiencing the opposite, with Google (NASDAQ:) According to trends, searches for baby bottles will increase by 15% annually in 2022, while searches for cribs will almost double.
