New Delhi, January 28 (IANS). Despite many policy steps taken by the Chinese government to increase the population, the country’s population is continuously declining and the society is rapidly aging. According to media reports, the birth rate in China has reached a historically low level.
According to the latest official data, only 79.2 lakh children were born in China last year, which is about 17 percent less than 95.4 lakh the previous year. This figure is the lowest since 1949. This information has been given in the report of Myanmar based Mekong News.
According to the report, China’s total population declined by 3.39 million to 1.4049 billion, while the number of deaths increased to 1.13 crore, one of the highest in the last five decades.
The report said these figures reflect the failure of rapidly implementing family support policies and childcare subsidies. At the same time, it also highlights the problem of demographic imbalance and aging population caused by decades of strict family planning policies.
Chinese experts have expressed concern that continued population decline will deeply affect the country’s economy, job market and social structure in the coming decades. The report notes that socio-economic challenges such as the younger generation marrying late or not marrying at all, rising inflation, housing insecurity and intense workplace competition are weakening their desire to become parents.
According to the report, a declining and aging population threatens long-term productivity, puts pressure on pension systems and could weaken the consumer base, even as China’s leadership seeks to emphasize domestic demand-led economic growth.
Meanwhile, Beijing has launched several stimulus plans to boost population growth in the past year. These include a national childcare subsidy of a maximum of 10,800 yuan (about US$1,534) for each child under three years of age, which is considered the largest family support step since the three-child policy was implemented in 2021.
Apart from this, these measures also include increasing insurance coverage for child-related expenses, tightening regulation of the childcare sector, simplifying marriage registration and tightening divorce procedures.
The report said marriage registrations had dropped to 61.06 lakh in 2024, the lowest since 1980. However, now there are signs of slight increase in marriage cases. An 8.5 percent increase was recorded in marriage registrations in the first three quarters of 2025. This increase was 38.7 percent in Shanghai and 12 percent in Fujian.
The China Population Association estimates that total marriages could be around 69 lakh in 2025 and the number of births could reach slightly above 80 lakh in 2026.
However, the report warned that the number of women of reproductive age is continuously declining, the desire to have children remains weak and the decision to become parents is increasingly being postponed. Unless there is comprehensive social support, affordable housing, better work-life balance, gender-equitable employment policies, and reliable childcare arrangements, these policy changes will only slow rather than reverse demographic decline.
–IANS
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