China’s population has decreased for the first time in more than 60 years, official data released on 17 January shows.
The mainland Chinese population stood at approximately 1,411,750,000 (over 1.4 billion) at the end of 2022, Beijing’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported on Tuesday, a decrease of 850,000 from the end of 2021.
The NBS said the number of births was 9.56 million, while the number of deaths stood at 10.41 million.
Men also continued to outnumber women in China by 722.06 million to 689.69 million.
The new figures mark the first fall in China’s population since 1961 when the country battled the worst famine in its modern history.
The famine was caused by China’s first communist leader, Mao Zedong’s disastrous agricultural policy known as the Great Leap Forward.
Analysts have predicted a long period of population decline for the world’s most populous nation which will most likely negatively impact economic growth and pile pressure on the country’s strained public finances.
The head of the NBS, Kang Yi, said people should not worry about China’s population decline as the country’s overall labour supply still exceeds demand.
In 2016, China ended its strict “one-child policy” and in 2021 allowed couples to have three children, but the policy change has not reversed the demographic decline.
United Nations experts believe China’s population could reduce by 109 million by the year 2050.
China has long been the world’s most populous nation but is expected to soon be overtaken by India if it has not already. India’s population is also more than 1.4 billion. | Al Jazeera