The rate is a challenge to the economy and highlights limit to Beijing’s interventions as it struggles to grow the populationA woman holds a baby in a Beijing park, China. Picture: GETTY IMAGES/KEVIN FRAYER
There were 10.62-million babies born in China in 2021, down from 12-million in 2020, according to data released by the National Statistics Bureau on Monday. That’s the fewest number of births since at least 1950, according to calculations based on official data. The birth rate, or the number of newborns per 1,000 people, dropped to 7.52 last year, the lowest level since at least 1978.
The drop in the number of women at optimal age for childbearing, changing attitudes towards raising children and Covid-19 all contributed to the decrease in births, Ning Jizhe, head of the NSB, said at a press briefing in Beijing on Monday. However, the population will continue to hover at about 1.4-billion people, with about 10-million newborns expected in years to come, he said, as the new three-child policy gradually takes effect.
Though such remarks were widely criticised as sensationalist, Ren’s comments might have shed some light on the challenges facing the authorities. Decades of stringent birth controls, a feminist awakening and uncertainties of the lingering Covid-19 pandemic have changed younger generations’ attitudes towards family life.
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