Editorial | As China’s population falls, let us not forget there is a silver lining
- With every crisis, comes opportunities; with foresight and adjustment, economic and social engines can still drive positive and sustainable growth
China’s population is continuing to shrink, deepening concerns over the future of the global economic powerhouse and the wider world. But as the country ages with perhaps more demographic burden than dividend, there are also new opportunities for development and growth.
With strategic adaptations and adjustments in economic and social policies, there is still hope for the “China miracle” to prevail.
That the country’s population has dropped for the second year is hardly surprising. In fact, population growth has been slowing since 2016, with analysts linking it to the high cost of raising children, a greater pursuit of individualism and a diversified lifestyle.
According to the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the overall number fell by 2.08 million last year to 1.4097 billion, down from 1.4118 billion in 2022. New births declined by 5.6 per cent to 9.02 million. This is the lowest birth rate since records began in 1949, with 6.39 births for every 1,000 people compared with 6.77 in 2022.
Whether the relaxation of the one-child policy and some family-friendly measures by individual municipal authorities will make a difference in the longer term remains to be seen. But the trend may not be easily reversed.
The doom and gloom that followed 2022’s first population drop in six decades may well intensify amid concerns over a possible economic and social time bomb fuelled by a dwindling workforce, less spending power, ballooning pensions and medical bills.