China's population shrinks for 1st time in over 60 yrs
TOKYO. KAZINFORM 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 due in part to the country's rapidly aging society, Kyodo reports.
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.
The country'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.
Photo: Kyodo