Posted on 01/17/2023 6:58:40 AM PST by Red Badger
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- China's population has declined for the first time in six decades, as the world's second-largest economy announced Tuesday that more people died last year than were born.
China reported a record low rate of 9.56 million births in 2022, which was a decrease of 850,000, or 10%, from 2021, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. There were 10.41 million deaths last year, marking the first time China's population has declined since 1961 after a three-year famine killed tens of millions of people.
Tuesday's numbers were part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's economic report for 2022. The report showed a 3% increase in gross domestic product, which was the weakest number in decades as Beijing's government faces backlash following last month's sudden reversal of its zero-tolerance policy toward COVID-19.
Over the weekend, China reported close to 60,000 people have died from the virus since early December after ending three years of anti-COVID measures. Experts predict the death toll could rise to 1 million in the coming months.
"In the long run, we are going to see a China the world has never seen," said Wang Feng, a professor of sociology at the University of California at Irvine.
"It will no longer be the young, vibrant, growing population. We will start to appreciate China, in terms of its population, as an old and shrinking population," Feng said.
As China's population shrinks and life expectancy increases, nearly a third of its population could be over the age of 60 by 2035, according to projections. That means the world's second largest economy, behind the United States, will no longer have enough people of working age to support the country's manufacturing sector.
China, which has seen declining birth rates over the past decade, relaxed its one-child policy after 35 years in 2016. The government raised the limit to three children in 2021 after China's birthrate decreased to its lowest level since 1978. The government has even offered cash and tax cuts to encourage couples to procreate, as some economists blame China's declining population on the rise of the middle class.
"Once you have well-qualified, well-educated urban people, they will decide not to produce a lot of kids," said Kent Deng, professor of economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who also believes China's one-child policy may have permanently changed ideas about family size.
"They can see the result, because they can send their kids to the best schools and then to the best universities," Deng said.
China, Japan and South Korea are now among the lowest fertility rates in the world. According to new estimates from the United Nations, India's population could outgrow China's by the end of the year.
While the United Nations predicts China's population will continue to decline from its current 1.41 billion people to 800 million by the end of the century, the population of the United States is expected to grow from its current 337 million, mostly through immigration.
With only 5100 deaths from covid? I’m so confused....(/S)
I tend to believe that it has been shrinking for the last ten years.
850,000 deaths in excess of births. The Great Depopulation of China has begun.
I think we’re just starting to see what many have been predicting, they have a disaster on their hands. One child policies for too long and now cost of living discourages people from having kids in general. Western nations and other Asian (Japan, ...) nations having to import immigrants to prop up their workforce.
The next few decades will be a sh*t show.
Sure, b/c they’re moving to California in droves.
I saw a video predicting the fall of China just recently. It may have been on the JRE.
The gentleman stated that we have seen the Zenith of China economically. That the one child policy will be their downfall. That they are doomed long term.
The dangerous part is that they might start a war to cover up the problem.
Well, they were able to keep the COVID deaths so low by just welding everyone into their apartments so they starved to death before the COVID could get ‘em.
“That the one child policy will be their downfall.”
Yeah, might not have been so bad if it was a “one daughter policy”. But it was effectively a “one son policy”, and that’s just national suicide.
Yep. The dominoes across the world are all set up...and they’re all about to come crashing down over the next couple of decades.
The one child policy made the parents keep the male boys to carry on the family name. Aborted or killed the girls. Now they have excess boys with no brides to be had. A lot are going to Viet Nam or other places to get brides. In the long run this waters down the pure chinese DNA.
We need to get their excess boys hooked on computer games immediately.
It’s our only hope.
Gates and Thanos are both nodding their approval at this news.
My 2 nephews in China are just like that. All they want is to play video games and have the older generation support them. They don’t think of the future. My in-laws worry but are unsuccessful at changing them much. I hear similar stories from my coworkers in Shanghai too. All play, no study.
[The dangerous part is that they might start a war to cover up the problem.]
That might be the new model for several nations...
More people migrate out of China per year than into it, further decreasing the population. Since at least 1950, when the UN began compiling statistics, China has had a net negative number of migrants – meaning more people are leaving the country than arriving.
The country’s evolution from widespread poverty to the world’s second-largest economy led to an increase in people bailing and during the real transition over the last 20 years, more people can afford to go and start elsewhere rather than living under such a destructive political stance.
wy69
since 1961 after a three-year famine killed tens of millions of people
Yeah. A famine.
Well... 1 child, a pref for males over females, an aging population.
I read a few years ago that this was a certainty.
Yes, by 2050, China will be a nation of elderly people..................
Well there is one positive thing about video games…. Less time spent in alcohol, drugs, illicit sex and other bad things. When our only son was younger and seemed to be veering, I intentionally bought him a video game.
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