Amid escalating tensions with the United States, Europe, and Beijing's Asian neighbors, China has declared its first population falls in decades as the formerly most populated country in the world ages and its birth-rate plummets. The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the population was 850,000 lower by the end of 2022 than the previous year. In addition to excluding individuals from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macao, it only counts people who live in mainland China.
10.41 million people died in total, a slight rise from the 10 million deaths noted in recent years. , unexpectedly abandoning its zero-tolerance policy against the virus in early December, China experienced an increase in mortality connected to the virus starting last month. This year will probably see more deaths than usual since infections are still spreading across the nation and because fatalities typically follow illnesses by a few weeks. The number of deaths this year may increase due to that outbreak.
The population decline occurred far sooner than anticipated, which might restrain economic growth by lowering consumer demand for items like new homes. Due to the drop, China's economy may find it difficult to surpass that of the US in size, and the country may lose its title as the world's most populated nation to India this year. Due to the stringent one-child ban, which was only formally lifted in 2016, and the customary preference for male progeny to carry on the family name, men exceeded women by a ratio of 722.06 to 689.69 million.
The last time China's population was thought to have decreased was during the Great Leap Forward at the end of the 1950s, when Mao Zedong's disastrous drive for industrialization and collective farming resulted in a catastrophic famine that killed tens of millions of people.
China has attempted to encourage couples to have second or even third children since discontinuing the policy. Still, efforts have met with limited success, reflecting attitudes in much of east Asia where birth rates have plummeted sharply. In China, the cost of raising kids in cities is frequently highlighted as a contributing factor.
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