Daily US Times: Chinese government data released on Tuesday shows the country’s population grew at its slowest pace in decades.
The average annual growth rate was 0.53% over the past 10 years, down from a rate of 0.57% between 2000 and 2010 – bringing the total population to 1.41bn.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics data shows the population rose by 5.38% — or 72 million people — to 1.41 billion over the past decade.
The results add pressure on China to boost measures for couples to have more babies and avert a population decline.
The census results were announced in a once-a-decade census, which was originally expected to be released in April.
It was conducted in late 2020 where some 7 million census takers had gone door-to-door to collect information from Chinese households.
In 2020, the number of newborns registered in the country dropped by almost 15 percent year-on-year, from 11.79 million in 2019 to 10.03 million. Meanwhile, the proportion of the Chinese population aged over 65 rose rapidly, from 8.87% in 2010 to 13.5% in 2020.
Given the sheer number of people surveyed, it is considered the most comprehensive resource on the country’s population, which is important for future planning.
China’s trends are largely an effect of it’s controversial one-child policy, which was introduced in 1979 to slow population growth.
Families that violated the one-child rules faced fines, loss of employment and sometimes forced abortions.
In 2016, the Chinese government ended the policy and allowed couples to have two children.
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