TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – The Chinese government said Friday that its population fell for the third consecutive year last year, leaving the world’s second-most populous country facing both an aging population and a new labor shortage. He pointed out that what they are facing is an additional demographic challenge. people of age.
China’s population will be 1.48 billion at the end of 2024, a decrease of 1.39 million from the previous year.
The figures released by the Beijing government follow global trends, particularly in East Asia, where countries such as Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong have suffered steep declines in birth rates. Three years ago, China joined Japan and most of Eastern Europe among other countries with declining populations.
The reasons are often similar. Rising costs of living have led young people to postpone or eliminate marriage and childbearing while pursuing higher education and careers. People are living longer, but not enough to maintain birth rates.
Countries like China, which allow few immigrants, are particularly at risk.
China has long been one of the world’s most populous countries, enduring invasions, floods and other natural disasters to sustain a thriving population on rice in the south and wheat in the north. After World War II ended and the Communist Party took power in 1949, even after tens of millions of people died during the Great Leap Forward, which sought to revolutionize agriculture, industry, and industry, the Families reemerged and the population doubled. The Cultural Revolution occurred a few years later.
After the Cultural Revolution ended and leader Mao Zedong passed away, Communist Party bureaucrats began to worry that the country’s population was outgrowing its self-sufficiency and began implementing a strict “one-child policy.” Although this was never a law, women had to apply for permission to bear children, and violators could face forced late-term abortions and sterilization, large fines, and children stripped of their identification numbers. In effect, they may be made non-citizens. .
Preference for boys is particularly strong in China’s rural areas, and what was ostensibly allowed to have up to two children became the focus of government efforts, with women required to provide proof that they were menstruating, and buildings with signs that read “No children allowed”. Slogans such as “Less, More” were raised. children. ”
The government sought to eradicate selective abortion of girls, but as abortion became legal and readily available, illegal ultrasound machine operators flourished.
This is the biggest factor behind China’s imbalanced sex ratio, with millions of more boys being born for every 100 girls, raising the possibility of social instability among China’s single population. It’s increasing. Friday’s report put the gender imbalance at 104.34 men for every 100 women, but independent groups say the imbalance is significant.
Even more worrying for the government was the sharp decline in the birth rate, with China’s total population falling for the first time in decades in 2023, and the same year China narrowly overtook India as the world’s most populous country. Ta. a Rapidly aging populationthe system is under severe pressure due to a shrinking workforce, lack of consumer markets, and overseas migration.
Spending on military and flashy infrastructure projects continues to rise, while China’s already fragile social security system is unstable and more Chinese are refusing to pay into their underfunded pension plans.
Already more than a fifth of the population is over the age of 60, official figures put it at 310.3 million, or 22% of the total population. By 2035, this number is expected to rise to over 30%, sparking debate about changes to the system. official retirement ageone of the lowest in the world. As the number of students declines, some vacant schools and kindergartens are being converted into care facilities for the elderly.
Such developments are lending some credence to the adage that China, now the world’s second-largest economy but facing major headwinds, “gets old before it gets rich.”
Government incentives such as cash grants for having up to three children and financial assistance with housing costs have only had a temporary effect.
Meanwhile, China continues to transition to an urban society, with an additional 10 million people moving to cities, resulting in an urbanization rate of 67%, an increase of almost 1 percentage point from the previous year.
