The population of mainland China shrank for the first time in 61 years, government data showed Tuesday, with the East Asian nation estimated to have already been overtaken by India as the world's most populous nation amid a continued fall in the birthrate and a rapidly aging society.
The population of China, excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, reached 1,411.75 million by the end of 2022, down 850,000 from the previous year, the government said. The figure compares with India's population of 1,412 million in 2022, estimated by the United Nations.
China's birthrate in 2022 fell to 6.77 per 1,000 people, down from 7.52 the year before, hitting a new record low since 1949, when Mao Zedong founded the Communist-led People's Republic of China.
China's population has been graying, due largely to its "one-child policy" introduced in 1979, but the policy was scrapped under President Xi Jinping's government in 2016 as concern grew that a rapidly aging population would constrain the nation's economic expansion.
China had seen its population grow since 1961, when it witnessed mass starvation due to the catastrophic Great Leap Forward, seen as a misguided economic policy initiated by Mao.
The number of babies born in 2022 stood at 9.56 million, down 1.06 million from 2021 for the sixth straight yearly decline and falling below the benchmark of 10 million for the first time since 1950, according to Chinese media.
The population aged 65 and older accounted for 14.9 percent of the total last year, up 0.7 percentage point from 2021 and surpassing the threshold of 14 percent for an "aged society," as defined by the United Nations.
The number of deaths rose 270,000 from 2021 to 10.41 million. The increase in deaths was partly caused by the coronavirus pandemic, with health authorities recently reporting nearly 60,000 COVID-related deaths between Dec. 8 and Jan. 12 following a major easing of the country's strict antivirus measures.
In May 2021, China decided to allow married couples to have a third child, but so far, the country has not seen a baby boom, with experts pointing to the heavy financial burden on young couples to raise children.
The U.N. estimates show China's population will decline to 1.3 billion while that of India will exceed 1.6 billion by 2050.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters Tuesday that China and India are populous countries with relatively abundant labor resources and that the two countries should "make good use of the demographic dividend to achieve their own development and make greater contributions to the future of mankind."
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