China’s population decreased in 2022 – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries

While the Chinese are busy celebrating Chinese New Year, news comes that the population is declining. That hasn’t happened since 1961. The country had 1.41175 billion people at the end of 2022, down from 1.41260 billion a year earlier. The decrease is therefore around 850,000 people, according to China’s Bureau of Statistics. Not since Mao Zedong’s failed agricultural reforms has the population shrunk to such a large extent. Two women and their children pose for the photographer in front of the portrait of Mao Zedong in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Photo: KIM KYUNG-HOON / Reuters The number of births is also down. Last year, 6.77 children were born per 1,000 women. That’s down from 7.52 in 2021. It’s the lowest on record, according to the Chinese Bureau of Statistics. At the same time, the death rate was 7.37 per 1,000 inhabitants, up from 7.18 in 2021. In the long term, UN experts believe that the Chinese population will decrease by 109 million by 2050. That is more than three times as large a decrease as they saw for themselves in 2019. Encourages more children From 1985 to 2015, China asked Chinese couples to be content with having one child. At the same time, it has become more expensive to get an education. Both parts mean that many have only one or no children. Experts believe the population will fall by 1.1 per cent going forward and that the country will only have 587 million inhabitants in the year 2100, writes AFP. China’s population will continue to decline, according to experts. Photo: ALY SONG / Reuters The Chinese authorities are anxious that the workforce will become smaller because it will affect the country’s economy, and that an aging population will put pressure on the healthcare system. In October last year, President Xi Jinping signaled that he would speed up the birth rate again. Last year it became legal to have three children. But after decades of propaganda telling families that one child is best, the trend is still difficult to reverse. A downturn in the economy during the pandemic may also have contributed to young people having a slightly less optimistic view of the future. Now the Chinese authorities are enticing people to have more children with reduced taxes, longer parental leave and sponsored housing. But according to experts, it will not dampen the development with fewer children going forward.



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