Chinese population fell for third year in 2024

AFP :

China said on Friday its population fell for the third year running in 2024, extending a downward streak after more than six decades of growth as the country faces a rapidly ageing population and persistently low birth rates.
Once the world’s most populous country, China was overtaken by India in 2023, with Beijing seeking to boost falling birth rates through subsidies and pro-fertility propaganda.
And by the end of the year, the population stood at 1.408 billion, Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics said, down from 1.410 billion in 2023.
But the decline was less sharp than the previous year, when it was more than double the fall reported for 2022, data showed.
China ended its strict “one-child policy”, imposed in the 1980s over overpopulation fears, in 2016 and started letting couples have three children in 2021.
But that has failed to reverse the demographic decline for a country that has long relied on its vast workforce as a driver of economic growth.
Many say falling birth rates are due to the soaring cost of living, as well as the growing number of women going into the workforce and seeking higher education.
People over 60 are expected to make up nearly a third of China’s population by 2035, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research group.