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What are the key points of the agreement between China and the US? 6:49
(CNN) - China's birth rate in 2019 reached its lowest level since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, according to official statistics published by Beijing on Friday.
Chinese mothers gave birth to 14.65 million children last year, a birth rate of 10.48 babies per 1,000 people, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.
China's demographic problems could pose serious problems for the second largest economy in the world when the current working-age population retires. Experts worry that if the trend continues, or if the population begins to shrink, China could age before getting rich.
- LOOK: China's economy registers its weakest annual growth in 29 years
Demographers have long pointed out that China's "one child policy" is to blame for the country's current population problems. For decades, couples in China limited themselves to having only one child, unless they were willing to break the law or have the money to work throughout the system.
Experts say the policy had dire effects on the demography of age and sex ratio, since many poor rural families who appreciated male children because of traditional cultural values, took extreme measures to ensure the sex of their children. .
More than 250 million Chinese were over 60 last year, statistics published on Friday reveal. They constitute more than 18% of the population.
The figure is forecast to increase to one third of the population by 2050, or 480 million people. A study published by an important group of Chinese experts, sponsored by the state last year, found that the country will face an "unstoppable" decline in population in the coming decades, with fewer and fewer workers struggling to support a society increasingly aged.
The ruling Communist Party has tried to combat demographic problems by encouraging families to have more babies, but many middle-class families distrust doing so due to financial considerations.
A survey conducted in 2017 found that more than 50% of families have no intention of having a second child, and many said they believed it was too expensive.
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However, it is not clear how reliable the figures are, as Beijing has been accused of meddling with its political earnings statistics by Western governments and academics such as Yi Fuxian, who studies Chinese demography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison . Yi said in a statement that the numbers are probably exaggerated because they are strongly influenced by external factors.
China's neighbors in northeast Asia are dealing with similar demographic problems: poor populations that do not have enough children to replace them.
The number of babies born in Japan in 2019 fell to 864,000, the lowest number since records began in 1899, according to a report published by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.
South Korea's fertility rate reached a record low last year of 0.98, or less than one baby per woman in the population. To maintain a stable population, countries need a fertility rate of 2, somewhat above what population growth indicates.
Erin Chan, Yong Xiong and Serenitie Wang of CNN contributed to this report.
Population Control