The population of the World’s most populous country China has started shrinking for the first time in six decades. Experts say it is a milestone for Beijing which is facing an increasing demographic crisis.
At the end of 2022, China’s population stood at 1.41 billion which is 850,000 lesser than the year before, reported Bloomberg citing official data released by the National Statistics Bureau. This marks the first decline since 1961, the final year of the Great Famine under former leader Mao Zedong.
The report adds that some 9.56 million babies were born in 2022, down from 10.62 million a year earlier, the lowest level since at least 1950, despite efforts by the government to encourage families to have more children.
A total of 10.41 million people died which is a slight increase from around 10 million recorded in recent years. China suffered a surge in Covid-related deaths starting last month after it abruptly ended its zero-tolerance approach to the virus in early December.
Experts suggest that more Covid-related deaths will likely come this year as fatalities usually lag infections by weeks and infections are still spreading across the country. That outbreak could further push up the number of deaths this year.
Notably, the population drop-off came much faster than previously expected and could act as a brake on economic growth by slowing demand for goods such as new houses. Bloomberg report says that due to the decline, the Chinese economy may struggle to overtake the US in size and the nation could lose its status as the world’s most populous country to India this year.
The United Nations in 2019 had predicted that China’s population would peak in 2031 and then decline, but last year the UN revised that estimate to see a peak at the start of 2022. The labor force is already shrinking, long-term demand for houses will fall likely further, and the government may also struggle to pay for its underfunded national pension system, the report mentioned.