{"id":13700,"date":"2026-01-19T12:37:04","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13700"},"modified":"2026-01-19T12:37:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T12:37:04","slug":"chinas-population-falls-again-as-birthrate-drops-17-to-record-low-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=13700","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s population falls again as birthrate drops 17% to record low | China"},"content":{"rendered":"

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China\u2019s population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025 as the birthrate plunged to another record low despite the introduction of polices aimed at encouraging people to have children.<\/p>\n

Registered births dropped to 7.92 million in 2025 \u2013 or 5.63 for every 1,000 members of the population \u2013 down 17% from 9.54 million in 2024, and the lowest since records began in 1949.<\/p>\n

The population dropped by 3.39 million to 1.405 billion, a faster fall than 2024, while deaths rose to 11.31 million from 10.93 million in 2024, figures from China\u2019s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed.<\/p>\n

Yi Fuxian, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said births in 2025 were \u201croughly the same level as in 1738, when China\u2019s population was only about 150 million\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Graph showing decline in China\u2019s birthrate since early 2010s<\/a><\/figure>\n

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The fall comes despite years of policies from Beijing intended to boost the flagging birthrate. This year, the government allocated<\/a> 90bn yuan (\u00a39.65bn) for its first nationwide childcare subsidy programme, for children aged under three. There are also plans to expand national healthcare insurance to cover all childbirth related expenses, including IVF treatment.<\/p>\n

But young people still feel that it is too expensive to have children, especially in a time of high unemployment and slowing economic growth. \u201cGiven the current environment, it is a miracle that anyone is willing to have kids at all,\u201d wrote one Weibo user.<\/p>\n

The average cost of raising a child in China until the age of 18 is 538,000 yuan \u2013 more than 6.3 times as high as its GDP per capita, compared with 4.11 times in the US or 4.26 times in Japan, according to<\/a> a Chinese population research thinktank. The cost is even higher in Chinese cities.<\/p>\n

Decades of a one-child policy mean that the current generation of adults who are at child-bearing age are socially conditioned to favour single-child households. The effects of the policy, which was lifted in 2017, mean that the pool of people of child-bearing age is also shrinking, as China\u2019s population rapidly ages.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Women push baby strollers through Beijing. The cost of childcare in urban centres is thought to be one factor in the declining fertility rate.<\/span> Photograph: Adek Berry\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, China also removed condoms from the list of VAT-exempt items<\/a>, meaning that they will be slapped with a 13% tax rate, raising concerns that the government is trying to make it harder to avoid pregnancy. Free contraceptives are still available through government-funded programmes. But many internet users in China predicted that the birthrate would continue to fall in future.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s death rate of 8.04 for every 1,000 members of the population in 2025 was the highest since 1968. The population has been shrinking since 2022<\/a> and is ageing rapidly, complicating Beijing\u2019s plan to increase domestic consumption and rein in debt.<\/p>\n

Over-60s account for about 23% of the total population, according to NBS data. By 2035, the number of people older than 60 is predicted to reach 400 million \u2013 roughly equal to the populations of the US and Italy combined \u2013 meaning hundreds of millions of people are likely to leave the workforce at a time when pension budgets are already stretched.<\/p>\n

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