The decline in the population in China is confirmed. For the third consecutive year, the country announced, Friday, January 17, that its population had decreased in 2024, to 1.408 billion inhabitants at the end of the year, compared to 1.410 billion at the end of 2023, according to the National Office of Statistics (NBS) of Beijing.
The fall, however, was less pronounced than in 2023, when the decline doubled compared to the previous year. Previously, the country had experienced six decades of uninterrupted population growth.
Since 2023, India is the most populous country in the world with more than 1.428 billion inhabitants.
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China ended its one-child policy in 2016, imposed since the early 1980s due to fears of overpopulation, and allowed couples to have three children in 2021. But those measures have failed to reverse population decline in a country where a vast, cheap labor force has long served as an engine of economic growth.
Increase in retirement age
Many link this decline in the birth rate to the soaring cost of living and the increasing number of women entering the job market or pursuing higher education.
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People aged over 60 will make up nearly a third of China’s population by 2035, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit research group.
In September, authorities announced the gradual increase in the legal retirement age, which had not been raised for decades and is among the lowest in the world.
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