China population: tumbling regional birth rates signal scale of country’s ageing crisis
- Population data released by some Chinese provinces and cities has shown dramatic declines in the number of newborns in 2020 compared to a year earlier
- Over the next five years, China’s total population will enter the range of zero growth, putting pressure on government plans to boost economic expansion
Despite the delayed publication of national population data, a slew of local birth statistics in China has hinted at a growing population crisis in the world’s most populous country.
Births are steadily falling in China and experts say they will only shrink further, putting pressure on Beijing’s lofty development goals, “unless miraculous achievements” are made in increasing the number of newborns in the future.
Annual population and birth figures for 2020 were not released as part of a series of economic indicators last month, mainly because China finished a once-in-a-decade population census at the end of last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The bureau said preliminary results of the census were expected to be published in April.
But over the course of January, some Chinese provinces and cities have disclosed their own birth data through government and state media reports – and in some cases birth rates declined more than 30 per cent in 2020 from a year earlier.
In the city of Guangzhou, the provincial capital of southern economic powerhouse Guangdong, the number of newborn babies fell to the lowest level in nearly a decade, according to a report in the state-run Guangzhou Daily.