BEIJING: China’s population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025, as the birthrate plunged to a record low, official data showed on Monday (Jan 19), with experts warning of further decline.
The country’s population dropped by 3.39 million to 1.405 billion, a faster decline than 2024, while the total number of births dropped to 7.92 million in 2025, down 17 per cent from 9.54 million in 2024. The number of deaths rose to 11.31 million from 10.93 million in 2024, figures from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed.
China’s birth rate dropped to 5.63 per 1,000 people.
Births in 2025 were “roughly the same level as in 1738, when China’s population was only about 150 million”, said Yi Fuxian, a demographer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
China’s death rate of 8.04 per 1,000 people in 2025 was the highest since 1968.
China’s population has been shrinking since 2022 and is ageing rapidly, complicating Beijing’s plan to boost domestic consumption and rein in debt.
The number of people aged over 60 years old reached around 23 per cent of total population, the NBS data showed.
By 2035 the number of over-60s is set to hit 400 million – roughly equal to the populations of the United States and Italy combined – meaning hundreds of millions of people are set to leave the workforce at a time when pension budgets are already stretched.
China has already increased retirement ages, with men now expected to work until they are 63 rather than 60, and women until they are 58 rather than 55.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/china-population-decline-marriage-births-5867436
