China announces its first population decline  

The birth rate for 2022 has fallen to a record low in six decades, in the most populous country of the world, China.

China’s population has declined for the first time in six decades and it deepens the nation’s deepening demographic crisis threatening far-reaching implications for economic growth, according to the South China Morning Post.

The post further writes “Deaths outnumbered births in China as its overall population plummeted by 850,000 people – to 1.4118 billion in 2022, down from 1.4126 billion a year earlier, Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.”

China had a one-child policy for long, which was lifted only in 2016 to encourage families to have further children so as to address declining birth rates which failed to produce desired results. Besides, “China’s population has begun to decline 9-10 years earlier than Chinese officials predicted and the United Nation projected” as stated by AP.