China’s population dropped by 2 million people last year, the second straight annual drop as births fell and deaths jumped, the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics said yesterday.
The number of deaths rose by 690,000 to 11.1 million, more than double last year’s increase, bureau data showed.
Demographers were expecting a sharp rise in deaths, citing COVID-19 outbreaks that started at the end of the previous year and continued through February last year.
Photo: AFP
The total population stood at 1.4 billion, the bureau said.
China, long the most populated country in the world, last year dropped into second place behind India, according to UN estimates.
The number of births fell for the seventh year in a row, reflecting a fall in the birthrate that is a long-running economic and societal challenge for China.
The population is aging steadily, which could slow economic growth and challenge the nation’s ability to provide for a larger population of elderly people with fewer workers.
The number of births fell by 540,000, which was less than in previous years. About 9 million babies were born last year, half of the total in 2016, the bureau’s data showed.
All the figures are estimates based on surveys, and do not include Hong Kong and Macau. China conducts a full census every 10 years.
China, which once sought to control population growth with its one-child policy, is now facing the opposite problem. The government has sought to encourage births since gradually easing the policy over 2014 to 2016 to allow a second child and then a third child in 2021, but with little success.
People are marrying later and sometimes choosing not to have children. Even those who do often have only one child because of the high cost of education in cities in a highly competitive academic environment.
The population of women of child-bearing age has also fallen.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in October last year told the new leadership of the All-China Women’s Federation that it is necessary to improve guidance for young people’s views on marriage, parenthood and the family, and to promote policies that support parenthood, a report on a government Web site said.
“We must tell good stories about family customs, guide women to play a unique role in promoting the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation and establishing good family customs, and create a new culture of family civilization,” he was quoted as saying.
The working-age population, defined as those aged 16 to 59, fell to 61 percent of the total population, continuing a gradual decline, bureau data showed.
The proportion of those aged 60 or older rose to 21 percent. The official retirement age in China is 60 for men and 50 or 55 for women, the data showed.
The drop in population is expected to be less this year because of the waning effects of the pandemic and it is the Year of the Dragon, considered an auspicious year to have children, an expert said at a forum earlier this week, the English-language China Daily reported.
However, Yuan Xin (原新), a professor at Nankai University and vice president of the China Population Association, said that “the downward trend in China’s total population is bound to be long-term and become an inherent characteristic.”
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
RSS