- China’s population declined in 2022, the first time since the early 1960s.
- The country’s population fell by 850,000 people in 2022 to 1.4118 billion, per official statistics.
- The drop, coupled with China’s aging population, poses risks to the health of the nation’s economy.
China’s population is officially shrinking.
Mainland China’s population fell by 850,000 people in 2022 to 1.4118 billion, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday. The country recorded 9.56 million new births and 10.41 million deaths in 2022. The news comes after years of falling birth rates and as Beijing grapples with an impending demographic crisis.
The decline is the first in China since Mao Zedong’s failed Great Leap Forward of the early 1960s, when nationwide famine claimed an estimated 30 million lives.
The drop in 2022 also comes after China posted its slowest ever population growth in 2021, when its population rose by 480,000 people.
This new data poses drastic implications for the health of China’s economy, such as potential falling demand for goods like housing and a significantly reduced working-age population.
Deaths in the country also increased, in part due to the pandemic — China has been reeling from a surge in COVID-related fatalities over the last month. On Saturday, health authorities reported nearly 60,000 COVID-related deaths between December 8 and January 12.
Health data firms elsewhere in the world estimate China’s total pandemic death toll over the next few months will reach at least 1 million.
Meanwhile, India is set to overtake China as the world’s most populous nation. The United Nations projects that India’s population will hit 1.67 billion people by 2050, while China is expected to have a smaller population of 1.32 billion by then.
Source: I N S I D E R
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