In 2022, 1.411 billion people lived in China, which is 850,000 less than a year earlier.
At the end of December last year, the world’s most populous country, China, was home to 1.411 billion people, down 850,000 from the previous year. This was announced on Tuesday, January 17, by the State Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.
Thus, the country’s population in 2022 will decrease for the first time in six decades, the dpa agency specified.
The birth rate was just 6.77 births per 1,000 people, the lowest in decades.
The number of births in 2022 (9.56 million) is lower than the number of deaths (10.41 million). Before this, the decline was recorded in 1960 and 1961 against the backdrop of a severe famine after the catastrophic consequences of industrialization.
High cost of housing and health care
According to experts, China has long suffered from a sharp decline in the birth rate and an aging population. The repeal of the controversial population policy in 2015 (“One family – one child”) led to an increase in rates – but only slightly and for a short time.
Experts believe that the reasons are the high cost of housing, education and health care in China, as well as a decrease in the desire of the population to marry. The pandemic appears to have exacerbated this negative trend.
As of 2021, Chinese couples are allowed to have up to three children. Training costs have been reduced somewhat. Granting maternity and parental leave has become easier.
At the same time, one in five Chinese citizens is over 60. The stratum of the working-age population aged 15 to 59 continues to shrink.
The birth control campaign was launched in China in 1979
A birth control campaign was launched in China in 1979. Its purpose was to limit the population.
In 2013, couples where one of the spouses was the only child in the family, representatives of some ethnic minorities, as well as rural residents of some provinces, were allowed to have a second child if the first child in the family is a girl.
Meanwhile, against the backdrop of a pandemic, hospitals in China have been overcrowded in recent months, crematoria unable to handle the burning of corpses. Official figures do not reflect the true scale of the epidemic in China for a long time, the dpa agency said.
Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have died from COVID-19 in China.
A source: Russian Service DW
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.