China announced on Friday (local time) that its population had declined for the third consecutive year in 2024, confirming a downward trend after more than six decades of growth.
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China had 1.408 billion inhabitants at the end of 2024, said the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in Beijing, compared to 1.410 billion the previous year.
The decline was, however, less pronounced than in 2023, when the decline doubled compared to the previous year.
China in 2016 ended its one-child policy imposed since the early 1980s due to fears of overpopulation, and in 2021 allowed couples to have three children.
-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.
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.
People aged over 60 will make up almost a third of China’s population by 2035, according to research group Economist Intelligence Unit.
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.
