China’s population crisis: 5 ways Beijing is trying to tackle a worryingly low birth rate

China had just 12 million babies last year, down from 14.65 million in 2019, marking an 18 per cent decline year on year

Authorities are rolling out a variety of measures to address the issue, from financial incentives to grandparenting classes

Reading Time:3 minutes

China is pulling out all the stops to boost its fertility rate, which is of increasing concern for officials. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 5:30pm, 1 Jan 2022

A falling fertility rate compounded by an ageing population is a growing headache for China, impinging on nearly every aspect of the world’s second largest economy.

China’s births fell by 18 per cent year on year in 2020 to just 12 million, down from 14.65 million in 2019 – marking a near six-decade low.

Some regions saw births fall more than 10 per cent, while Chizhou city in Anhui province said the number of newborns in the first 10 months of the year plummeted by 21 per cent compared to a year earlier.

In cities such as Beijing, Tianjin and Jiangsu, birth rates have been below one per cent for more than two decades.

The coronavirus pandemic has dampened the willingness of women under age 30 to give birth even further, according to researchers at Renmin University, as the number of Chinese newborns dropped by 45 per cent in the last two months of 2020 compared to the final year of the controversial one-child policy in 2016.

Experts predict China’s population could go into decline as early as this year.

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