China's Population Continues to Decline Despite Efforts to Increase Birth Rates.

China announced on Friday that its population has decreased for the third consecutive year in 2024, marking a continuation of a downward trend following over sixty years of growth. This decline is attributed to a rapidly aging demographic and persistently low birth rates. Once the most populous nation globally, China was surpassed by India in 2023. In response to the declining birth rates, the Chinese government is implementing measures such as subsidies and pro-fertility campaigns. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the population at the end of the year was recorded at 1.408 billion, a decrease from 1.410 billion in 2023. The decline this year was less pronounced than in the previous year, which saw a drop more than double that of 2022, as per the data. China abolished its stringent “one-child policy,” which was introduced in the 1980s due to concerns over overpopulation, in 2016, and permitted couples to have three children starting in 2021. However, these measures have not succeeded in reversing the demographic downturn in a country that has historically depended on its large workforce to fuel economic growth. Experts attribute the declining birth rates to the rising cost of living, alongside an increasing number of women entering the workforce and pursuing higher education. The trend of population decline is expected to persist, influenced by bleak economic prospects for the youth and the ongoing challenges of gender discrimination in the labor market, as noted by Yun Zhou, a sociologist at the University of Michigan, in an interview with AFP. By 2035, it is projected that individuals aged over 60 will constitute nearly one-third of China's population, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Recent data revealed that the population aged 60 and above has surpassed 310.31 million, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total population, an increase from approximately 297 million in 2023. Nevertheless, the data also indicated a slight uptick in China's birth rate, which remains among the lowest globally, rising to 6.77 births per 1,000 people from the previous year.