China's 2021 Birth Rate Lowest Since 1949
Although the government has tried to encourage people to have more children, China's birth rate in 2021 was the lowest it's been since 1949.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, 10.62 million babies were born in 2021, a birth rate of 7.52 per 1,000 people. This is down from a rate of 8.52 births per 1,000 people in 2020.
The 2021 birth rate is also almost equal to the year's death rate; 10.14 million deaths were recorded, a rate of 7.18 per thousand.
This means the natural growth rate of the population was just 0.34 per 1,000 people. It is the lowest since China's Great Famine from 1959 to 1961, which killed about 30 million people and caused a population decline.
Ning Jizhe of the National Bureau of Statistics told state media some of the reasons for the decline in births are that people's opinions about having children have changed, fertility rates are dropping, and young people are taking longer to get married.
The high cost of living in cities is also discouraging couples from having more children.
Zhiwei Zhang, chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, said that another problem is the population is aging faster than expected.
"This suggests China's total population may have reached its peak in 2021," he said.
To try and increase birth rates, the Chinese government ended its "one child" rule in 2016, and announced in 2021 that couples would be allowed to have up to three children.
