Beijing is already battling deflation, weak consumer demand, and an ongoing property-market crisis as well as declining birthrates.
China’s population fell again last year – and that’s a worrying sign for Beijing policymakers already grappling with deflation, a property crisis, and anemic economic growth.
The number of people in China declined by two million last year, according to National Bureau of Statistics data published Wednesday, with lower birth rates driving the fall. It’s the second consecutive year that China’s population has shrunk after six decades of rapid growth.
Here’s why dropping population numbers pose a threat to the world’s second-largest economy.Worrying data
China’s population fell in 2022 for the first time since the 1960s – and Wednesday’s statistics showed that the same thing happened again last year.
The number of babies born last year fell by 540,000 compared with 2022 to just over 9 million — the seventh consecutive annual fall.
Meanwhile, 11.1 million people died — almost 700,000 more than in 2022. The spike was likely driven by a surge in coronavirus infections after policymakers ended nearly three years of harsh zero-COVID lockdowns in December 2022.
