According to the data of the Chinese National Bureau of Statistics; The population of mainland China has decreased by 850 thousand people in 2022 compared to 2021. While 10.41 million people died in the country in 2022, 9.56 million babies were born. Thus, after tens of millions of people died as a result of drought and famine following then-leader Mao Zedong's practice of collectivization in agriculture in the late 1950s, the Chinese population declined for the first time since 1961.
It was stated that the birth rate in the country, which was 7.52 in 2021, decreased to 6.77 in 2022. The death rate, which was 7.18 the previous year, rose to 7.37 in 2022, the highest death rate recorded since 1976. The population was announced as 1 billion 411 million 750 thousand. It was recorded that the working age population aged 16-59 was 875.56 million, and the population aged 65 and over was 209.78 million.
The Population Crisis Is Growing
Experts state that the decline in the population is due to the "one child" policy implemented by China between 1979 and 2016, high living and education costs, and the strict "zero Covid" policy implemented in the last 3 years. Families were allowed to have two children in 2016 and three in 2021, while incentives, tax breaks and better healthcare were introduced to boost the declining birth rate, but the birth rate did not rise steadily.
China's long-held title of "world's most populous country" is expected to pass to India soon. It is stated that the population of India is more than 1 billion 400 million and continues to increase.