China’s birth rate fell below one percent in 2020, marking the lowest rate of childbirth in 43 years, official statistics have revealed, state-run tabloid Global Times reported on Saturday.
The birth rate in 2020 was recorded as 8.52 per thousand people, breaking a new low since 1978, according to the recently published China Statistical Yearbook 2020 compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics, noting that natural growth rate of the population accounts for 1.45 per thousand, also a new low in 43 years.
The birth rate in China was 10.48 per 1,000 in 2019, according to NBS data released last year. The latest population data from NBS indicates the extent of China’s demographic problems, which is fewer births and an ageing population. The country’s birth rate has been falling for years prompting the government to gradually ease the one-child policy, which was in place since the late 1970s.
China in May announced to further lift its family planning policy to allow each couple to have up to three children after the number of the country's newborns declined for four years straight, a major policy shift from the current second-child policy.
