China’s population has declined for the third year in a row

The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics announced that the country’s population will decline for the third year in a row, during the year 2024, to reach 1.408 billion people, despite the annual increase in birth rates.

The China Daily newspaper, citing the office, reported that the total population fell by 1.39 million people by the end of 2024, which is a smaller decline compared to the decline recorded during 2023 and 2022, which amounted to 2.08 million people, respectively.

The report revealed an increase in the number of new births during the year 2024 to 9.54 million births, compared to 9.02 million in 2023, in line with experts’ expectations, which attributed this increase to several factors, including the end of the “Covid-19” pandemic, and the beginning of the Year of the Dragon on the calendar. Chinese, as well as the high rates of registration of new marriages.

Statistics showed that the number of deaths exceeded the number of births by a slight margin, reaching 10.93 million deaths.

The office stated that the percentage of the population over the age of 60 years reached 22 percent of the total population in 2024, amounting to 310 million people, compared to 21.1 percent in 2023.

The report stated that the country’s urbanization rate rose by about 0.84 percentage points to reach 67 percent by the end of 2024.