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Chinese women with their children in Beijing
Photo:
WANG ZHAO/ AFP
It's a historic turning point: China's population has declined for the first time since 1961.
At the end of 2022, around 1.411 billion people lived in the country - around 850,000 fewer than a year earlier.
This was announced by the State Statistics Office.
China had relaxed its birth control policy in recent years and ended the “one child policy”.
Couples have been allowed to have two children since 2016 and three children since 2021.
Despite these decisions, however, there was no birth boom, as the current figures show.
The
birth rate
was therefore 6.77 births per 1000 people last year – and thus reached an all-time low.
According to the information, in 2021 the value was still 7.52.
At the same time, China recorded the highest
death rate
since 1976. Last year, 7.37 deaths per 1,000 people were reported;
in the previous year it was 7.18.
As early as mid-2022, the Chinese Health Commission had warned of a population decline - and expressed surprisingly clear criticism: "Our policy in the area of birth promotion is inadequate," it said at the time.
Couples in the People's Republic are struggling with rising living costs, housing costs and, above all, the costs of raising children.
However, experts also suspect a cultural change in the population: people would have gotten used to smaller families.
aar/Reuters