China’s population fell again last year, having experienced its first decline in six decades in 2022, as the birth rate hit a new low and the number of deaths climbed.
The overall population in mainland China fell by 2.08 million last year to 1.4097 billion, down from 1.4118 billion in 2022, according to official figures released on Wednesday.
Amid a plummeting interest in having children, 9.02 million babies were born last year, down by 5.6% from 9.56 million in 2022, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
The falling number of new babies resulted in the lowest birth rate since records began in 1949, with 6.39 births for every 1,000 people, compared with 6.77 in 2022.
Last year, 11.1 million people also died, pushing the national death rate to 7.87 per 1,000 people.
