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China population: census confirms increase to 1.412 billion in 2020, but births fall again

  • Mainland China’s overall population continued to grow last year, up from 1.4 billion a year earlier
  • Chinese mothers gave birth to 12 million babies last year, down from 14.65 million in 2019, marking an 18 per cent decline year on year

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Demographers believe China’s population is likely to begin declining in the next few years. Photo: AP
John Carterin Hong Kong,Sidney Lengin Hong KongandOrange Wangin Beijing

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Mainland China’s population grew last year, results of the once-in-a-decade census released on Tuesday showed, although the number of new births fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2020.

According to the seventh national population census conducted at the end of last year, China’s overall population rose to 1.412 billion in 2020, from 1.4 billion a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirmed at an eagerly awaited press conference in Beijing.
Chinese mothers gave birth to 12 million babies last year, down from 14.65 million in 2019, the NBS confirmed, marking an 18 per cent decline year on year and continuing the descent to a near six-decade low.
The census data also show some structural contradictions facing the country’s population development, such as the decline in the size of the working-age population and women of childbearing age
Ning Jizhe

China’s fertility rate was 1.3 children per woman, which is below the replacement level of 2.1 – the rate needed for a stable population – and close to that of Japan. The NBS added that the average number of children that a Chinese woman was willing to have last year was 1.8.

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“The census data also show some structural contradictions facing the country’s population development, such as the decline in the size of the working-age population and women of childbearing age, the deepening of the ageing degree, the decline in the total fertility rate, and the downturn in the number of births,” said NBS commissioner Ning Jizhe.

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