China's population declines in 2024 for the third consecutive year

This trend is new for the country, after six decades of population growth.

A trend that is taking root. China announced on Friday January 17 that its population had declined for the third consecutive year in 2024, confirming a downward trend after more than six decades of growth. The country thus had 1.408 billion inhabitants at the end of 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, compared to 1.410 billion a year earlier.

In 2023, China will cede its place as the most populous country in the world to India. Since then, Beijing has actively sought to boost the birth rate through subsidies and communication campaigns. In 2024, however, the decline was less pronounced than the previous year, when the decline doubled in one year.

China in 2016 ended its one-child policy imposed since the early 1980s due to fears of overpopulation. Since 2021, it has allowed all couples to have three children. But these measures have not been able to reverse the trend, in a country where cheap labor has long served as an engine of economic growth.

This population decline is likely to continue due to “gloomy economic outlook” for young people and while women “experience persistent gender discrimination in the labor market”says sociologist Yun Zhou to AFP. People aged over 60 are expected to make up almost a third of China's population by 2035.