China's population declined for the first time in 60 years in 2022, which will likely commence a prolonged trend of population decline that will affect its economy eventually.
The population fell by almost 850,000 people to 1.41175 billion in 2022, last year, according to the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the first dip since 1961, the last year of China's Great Famine, according to Reuters.
UN experts predict that the China population drop will be around 109 million by 2050, which is over three times the loss they predicted in their last projection in 2019.
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Beijing ended its long-standing "one child" policy in 2015 after recognizing that the constraint had led to a fast aging population and a decreasing workforce that threatened China's economic and social steadiness. However, despite a small increase in 2016, the national birth rate has been declining.
In 2021, policymakers allowed three children and encouraged bigger families with a multi-agency initiative to improve maternity leave, tax deductions, and other benefits to counter China population drop, as reported by CNN.
China Facing a Demographic Crisis
Demographer Fuxian Yi of the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates that while China population drop started in 2018, the decline was repressed by "faulty" demographic statistics.
Yi said that China is threatened by a "demographic crisis" that surpasses the expectations of Chinese officials and the world community. He predicts that the trend will slow down China's property market, a key development driver, per the Financial Times.
The NBS stated China population reduction should not be a worry since labor supply still surpassed demand and the long-term drop in workers will be compensated by the improvements in the labor and education sectors.
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