China’s population is decreasing for the first time in decades as the birth rate continues to decline, officials said.
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According to the National Bureau of Statistics, mainland China will have 1.41175 billion people by the end of 2022, up from 1.41260 billion in 2021. The country’s birth rate fell to 6.77 per thousand births, with a total of 9.5 million births. The birth rate has steadily declined over the last 60 years, raising concerns about China’s ability to overtake the United States as the world’s largest economy.
“By the end of 2022, the national population was 1,411.75 million (including the population of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities and servicemen, but excluding residents of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and foreigners living in the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities), a decrease of 0.85 million over that at the end of 2021. In 2022, the number of births was 9.56 million with a birth rate of 6.77 per thousand; the number of deaths was 10.41 million with a mortality rate of 7.37 per thousand; the natural population growth rate was minus 0.60 per thousand. In terms of gender, the male population was 722.06 million, and the female population was 689.69 million; the sex ratio of the total population was 104.69 (the female is 100). In terms of age structure, population at the working age from 16 to 59 was 875.56 million, accounting for 62.0 percent of the total population; population aged 60 and over was 280.04 million, accounting for 19.8 percent of the total population; population aged 65 and over was 209.78 million, accounting for 14.9 percent of the total population. In terms of urban-rural structure, the permanent residents in urban areas was 920.71 million, an increase of 6.46 million over the end of the previous year; and the permanent residents in rural areas was 491.04 million, a decrease of 7.31 million. The share of urban population in the total population (urbanization rate) was 65.22 percent, 0.50 percentage point higher than that at the end of the previous year.
With China’s population decline official, it is safe to say India is now the most populous country in the world pic.twitter.com/xNxVvsaAjG
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) January 17, 2023
The announcement was made during the release of China’s economic data for 2022, and officials stated that their GDP increased by 3%. According to NBC News, experts believe the declining population is a result of the country’s growing middle class.
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Kent Deng, an economics professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science, says those from urban and educated backgrounds are the people who are deciding not to have children.
“Once you have well-qualified, well-educated urban people, they will decide not to produce a lot of kids.”
Additionally, China’s labor force is declining in age as the economy depends on cheap labor in manufacturing factories, and said people ages 16 to 59 make up 62 percent of the population while those 60 and older made up 20 percent.