The number of inhabitants in China, the second most populous country in the world, suffered a new historic drop. According to official data published by the National Statistics Office (ONE), this Monday (19), the country registered 7.92 million births last year, a considerable reduction compared to the 9.54 million in 2024. The mark represents a historical record since the year the People’s Republic of China was founded, in 1949, even below the 9.02 million in 2023.
This is the fourth consecutive year of contraction, despite numerous policies announced by authorities, both locally and nationally, to try to create a “child-friendly society”. The birth rate has also fallen to historic lows, at 5.63 per 1,000 people. With a mortality rate of 8.04 per thousand inhabitants, the total population fell to around 1.404 billion people. If this pace is maintained, United Nations (UN) projections indicate that China’s population could fall to approximately 800 million inhabitants by 2100.
The decline is an effect of the “one-child policy”, which has been in force in the country for decades, where the search for male children predominated. Therefore, the approximate proportion in China is 104.34 men for every 100 women.
