China’s population grew to 1.4126 billion by the end of last year, increasing by less than half-a-million as the birth rate fell for the fifth consecutive year, stoking fears of a looming demographic crisis and a consequent economic slowdown in the world’s most populous nation.
At the end of 2021, China’s population on the mainland grew to 1.4126 billion from 1.4120 billion in 2020, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
China’s population increased by 480,000 in a year-on-year comparison from 2020, as per the NBS data.
The number of new births in 2021 stood at 10.62 million, down from 12 million in 2020, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported.
Earlier this month, Henan province, the country’s third-most-populous administrative region, reported that its number of newborn children fell to 920,000 in 2020 – a 23.3 per cent decline from 2019 – as the birth rate dropped to 9.24 births per 1,000 people.