Mainland China’s birth rate is alarmingly low. Chinese infant mortality will reach a record low of 7.52 per 1,000 people in 2021, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics. Following years of restrictions, the Chinese government has issued an appeal to encourage more births.
Couples are now allowed to have up to three children because of a drop in the number of young people and workers in the country.
Also, in 2016, the one-child policy was revoked in China for the first time in decades. They have removed it in favour of a more flexible two-child limit in order to better cope with an ageing populace. Still, many couples are reluctant to expand their families because of the high cost of residing in cities.
According to figures released by the statistics bureau, the current birth rate was the lowest recorded since the country gained its independence in 1949.
In 2021, China’s population growth rate was only 0.034 per cent, the lowest since 1960, when migration gets taken out of the equation.
Zhiwei Zhang, a Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management, noticed that “The demographic challenge is well known but the speed of population ageing is clearly faster than expected”. He also stated that this entails that China’s total population could have reached its peak in 2021. As per him, it also shows that China’s growth is likely slowing rapidly than expected. For instance, as per data, the birth rate per 1,000 people was 8.52 births in 2020. Whereas, the data shows that there were 10.62 million births in 2021, compared to 12 million in 2020.
China is now seeing the consequences of its harsh one-child policy. Even after ending it, the government has failed to increase the country’s plummeting birth rate.
Experts argue that the reason is that the relaxing of the policy did not come with other significant modifications that support family life — such as financial help for child care and extended paternity leave.
SOURCE: REUTERS
